Your steel and metals PR agency in Germany

A steel and metals PR agency in Germany specialises in the trade audience of steelmaking and metal processing. It knows the German steel press and the editorial calendars of its titles, from stahl und eisen to the stahlmarkt. Its calendar is set by the fair issues of these titles and their advertising deadlines. It turns materials and processes into articles that design engineers and buyers read. additiv has worked in industrial B2B markets since 1998 and runs steel and metals as a segment with its own topic programme.

It defines the positioning before the first text is written. From that it builds a topic programme for the year. Trade press work and press releases on investments and processes are part of it. Your experts contribute bylined articles. LinkedIn supports your sales team. Communication for trade fairs is timed to the deadlines of the fair issues. Content is written so that AI systems can use it as a source. additiv steers these elements as one programme, with a fixed team for each mandate.

The difference is depth in materials. A generalist agency can write a press release. It cannot weigh one steel grade against an application and explain the difference to a design engineer. That is where our work begins. Our editors specialise by product area. Every mandate has a fixed team of at least three people. Topic planning follows what happens in the steel market. The proof is in the titles that publish our articles, from stahl und eisen to blechnet.

additiv suits companies with products that need explaining and long decision paths. They include:

• steel producers and metallurgy companies,
• makers of stainless steel and special alloys,
• steel traders and service centres with processing,
• sheet metal, tube and forming companies and suppliers of materials and components.

They share a technical buying centre and a market where trust grows over years. That is why additiv works in this field on long-term retainers only.

Over many years additiv has worked for companies in the steel and metals industry. They include Günther + Schramm, a service provider for steel, stainless steel and aluminium, as well as Cogne Edelstahl, Steeltec, the Swiss Steel Group and Hoberg & Driesch. The Günther + Schramm case describes this partnership of around two decades. One result was a sector study with 40 leads in its first six weeks.

additiv places topics in trade media at every stage of the value chain:

• steelmaking and processes: stahl und eisen and STAHL + TECHNIK
• steel trade and distribution: the stahlmarkt and the Stahlreport of the German steel distributors’ association BDS
• sheet metal processing: blechnet and BLECH
• wire processing: DRAHT
• design and production: MM MaschinenMarkt

Forming technology has its own titles as well. The majority of these titles appear only in German. We choose the titles for your programme from your target groups and the editors’ topic plans. Our editors offer your stories to the journalists directly.

For steel and metals in Germany, depth matters more than reach. German steel editors expect a partner who knows materials as well as their titles. Our own team serves the German-speaking markets in both German and English. When a programme spans Europe, we steer your local teams or partners from Thenetworkone. This international network brings together independent agencies. Big networks reach more countries. In German steel media their coverage often stays shallow.

Yes, with a clear split of roles. Topics and messages for the whole programme come from us. In the German-speaking DACH region we run the press work ourselves. In the UK, Italy, Spain or the Nordics your local teams or Thenetworkone partners take the messages into their markets. We keep the terms for grades and processes consistent across languages. For a first step into Germany, see our page on market entry in Germany.

Several fixed dates shape the calendar. For sheet metal these are EuroBLECH in Hanover and Blechexpo with Schweisstec in Stuttgart. Düsseldorf hosts GIFA and METEC for foundry and metallurgy. wire and Tube for the wire and tube trades also take place there. Hannover Messe rounds off the year. Topics and texts are scheduled backwards from the editorial deadline of each fair issue. At your stand we organise press conferences and briefings. After the fair the material lives on in bylined articles and LinkedIn posts. More on our page for trade fair PR.

Every claim needs proof. If you communicate electric arc furnace steel or hydrogen-based direct reduction, the same text names the system boundary and the basis of calculation. The test method belongs there too. additiv phrases such statements so that they stand up to a customer audit. We say openly what is still at pilot stage. That approach holds up when editors and buyers ask questions, even when a figure turns out less impressive than hoped.

Reports under ESRS stay with your specialist departments and auditors. additiv takes on the communication before and after the report. We translate its content into language customers and media understand. We also derive articles and studies from data you collect anyway, such as Scope 3 figures or CBAM evidence. The content then supports your sales arguments. We anchor these topics in the annual programme so that they appear all year.

Steel and metal plants work with heat and hazardous substances. Accidents and emission incidents are a real risk. additiv prepares wording and reporting lines before anything happens. In an emergency we support communication with media, employees, authorities and neighbours. The first hour decides, because the wording has to be ready by then. More on our page for crisis communication.

Site communication in the narrow sense lies outside additiv’s services. It includes public dialogue and permit procedures. Public affairs belong to it as well. Specialist firms or your legal department take that role. We handle the interface. We prepare the trade audience and place the project in the trade press. We also align the wording. Your communication outside and inside the procedure then tells the same story. additiv coordinates directly with the firms you have appointed.

Yes, as a fixed part of the annual programme. In the steel industry LinkedIn is where plant management and purchasing can be reached directly. We build the profiles of managing directors and experts into voices with a clear position. Post formats grow out of the ongoing trade press work and run in one editorial plan. Ghostwriting is included. So are white papers and studies, for example on green steel. LinkedIn and trade press work stay with the same people at additiv.

Its job is to show on LinkedIn what a company knows about materials and manufacturing. The audience is design engineers and buyers. Topics follow the materials and the fair calendar, with EuroBLECH or Blechexpo as fixed points. The posts appear on the company page and under the names of your managers. The agency also runs campaigns and looks after the community. Every post about tolerances or alloys has to be technically correct. At additiv, LinkedIn topics come from the same plan as your trade press work.

It depends on scope and continuity. A freelancer suits single posts or photos from production. A steady rhythm over the year needs cover for absences and knowledge of materials. Many companies split the work. The agency takes on the editorial plan and the texts. The company supplies pictures from the plant and approves the posts. additiv splits it this way too. A fixed team per mandate covers the posts as well as the trade press work.

In a first call we talk about your target groups, topics, goals and budget. After that we pitch in a workshop and prepare a situation analysis. Both feed into the proposal. With your acceptance the annual retainer begins. The opening 100 days are reserved for team set-up and topic planning. The first press work starts before they end. For a good brief, send us your goals for Germany and your product range. Existing English material and your trade fair dates help as well.

Four points separate the candidates. The first is references from the steel and metals industry. The second is who sits in the team and how well they know materials. The third is a plan built around the fair issues and their deadlines. The fourth is proof that articles get through steel trade editors. A scorecard in your RFP can weight these points. additiv shows all four in the pitch, with examples from published articles.

The first publications take a few months, because trade media work with long lead times and plan around their issues. A regular presence in the titles that matter for your segment builds over six to twelve months. Visibility in AI answers follows the trade press with a delay, because AI systems need sources they can cite. additiv measures from the start and reports openly, even when a topic does not get through. We track publications, the reach of each title, mentions in AI answers and the sources cited there.

For steel and metals companies, a PR retainer starts at EUR 3,000 to 5,000 per month. A product launch or a campaign for a trade fair such as EuroBLECH is budgeted as a separate project. The effort depends on the number of topics per year, the types of text, the number of languages and markets and the approval process on your side. The initial call gives you a frank estimate of the budget additiv needs to make a real difference for you.

The first step is a baseline. It records how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Copilot describe your company today. The test questions are the ones your target group actually asks. From this we build a programme of citable content on your website and placements in the sources these systems use. Measurement continues: mentions, tone, cited sources and the position of competitors. The same method serves our trade press evaluation. Trade press and AI visibility come together in one report.

Once the proposal is signed, the 100-day onboarding begins. Our team works on Central European Time. For clients in the Americas or Asia we agree fixed meeting times that suit both sides. A regular jour fixe keeps the work on track. Translations into German are part of our editors’ work. They add no extra lead time for German media.