166m-euro turnover for Holcim

Construction supplies manufacturer Holcim Romania, the local branch of the Swiss group, achieved a 27% turnover growth to 166 million euros in 2005, company officials say. “The turnover growth was due to the increase of about 8-10% in the cement market and the investments of over 34 million euros made by Holcim in manufacturing technology upgrades, environment protection and business development,” stated Markus Wirth, Holcim Romania”s general manager. Holcim announced it would allocate some 70 million euros this year to continue the projects it started in 2005. The biggest of the company”s projects is being carried out in Campulung, where Holcim will invest 105 million euros until 2008, in building the largest grey cement production line in Romania, Holcim officials say. “The factory in Campulung is old and needed upgrades. We analysed the market potential and concluded we needed to boost our cement production capacities by 2008, due to an increase in consumption,” Wirth says. Holcim”s current manufacturing capacity stands at 2.5 million tonnes, which will increase by 500,000 tonnes once the investments in Campulung are finished. The volume of investments by the Swiss group, since its entry on the Romanian market in 1997, reached some 334 million euros on the cement, concrete and aggregate markets. Holcim”s main competitors on the international markets and in Romania are the French Lafarge Group and the German HeidelbergCement Group. The three international players arrived in Romania in 1997-1998, and slowly came to control the cement market. ZF