ArcelorMittal steel from Differdange guides you to the highest peak of Germany

At 2,962 metres, Zugspitze is Germany’s highest mountain and highest ski resort. There, you can enjoy powdery ski slopes in the winter and hiking trails in the summer. To transport visitors to the summit, a new cable car was installed. Its construction involved HD profiles, supplied by ArcelorMittal Differdange and ArcelorMittal Downstream Solutions in Neckarsulm.

The world’s highest structural support for aerial tramways

After three years of planning and construction, Zugspitze’s new cable car started its ascent this winter. For this unique project, our colleagues at ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products – together with ArcelorMittal Downstream Solutions – delivered HD profiles in steel grade S355J2, which were used to build the structure of the cable car. The beams were produced in ArcelorMittal’s Differdange mill in Luxembourg, where they were cut to length and the team of ArcelorMittal Downstream Solutions in Neckarsulm sold the products to the final customer.

Zugspitze’s cable car holds three world records:

  • First, the particularity of this cable car is that instead of using two supports, it only has one support measuring 127 metres high, making it the tallest tramway support in the world.
  • Then, the distance between the support and the mountain summit station is 3,213 metres.
  • Finally, another unique feature is the height difference of 1,945 metres between the valley station and the mountain summit station.
© Trey Waggener / Shutterstock.com

A new era

The modern cable car is a strong investment marking the beginning of a new era for the Zugspitzemountain.The 50 million-euro project has been providing visitors with maximum comfort and gave tourism an impulse throughout the region.

So far, around half a million visitors were transported annually, but the historic Eibsee cable car from 1963 reached the limits of its transport capacity on peak days. The new cable car should attract about 10 percent more passengers, which means an increase for the entire predominantly touristy region.

The two new cabins, with sparkling new and elegant design, can carry up to 120 passengers each with floor-to-ceiling glazed open-plan cabins offering grandiose panoramic views of Germany’s highest peak. In the future, it will guide alpinists, summer hikers, winter sports enthusiasts and tourists from all over the world to the mountain top.

© Victor Maschek / Shutterstock.com