Atchison Castings, the Kansas company, has signed a letter of intent to purchase the engineering division of Sheffield Forgemasters Group, with the aim of considerably widening its overseas markets.
The UK company, which hit the headlines in 1990 when it was suggested that the special large diameter pipes it was supplying to Iraq were being used to make a long-range “super-gun”, manufactures machined castings and forgings for a wide range of end-users, including the nuclear power industry. Sales from Sheffield’s Engineering Division for the year to end-March 1997 were $168 million.
