Artrom builds 49.5m-euro factory

Pipe producer Artrom Slatina plans to invest 39 million euros in building a factory with a manufacturing capacity of 100,000 tonnes of hot-rolled pipes per year, followed by a further 10.5 million euros in financing production. It plans to raise the necessary funds through credits.

“The investment will be performed gradually and its effect on revenues will be reflected in the turnover for 2007. We forecast a boost to sales of up to 90 million euros in 2007, owing to this investment alone. The precision pipes produced in the new facility will have superior quality, and we estimate a 22% higher price than the current one. The new products will be entirely for export. In terms of crediting, we are currently at the offering stage and are waiting for the project to be approved,” said Cristina Vaduva, Artrom”s economic manager.

Artrom”s management board has convened an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders for August 4 in order to get approval for the investment.

Loan guarantees will be established pledging as security both the new investment and that for the lamination facility at the Resita plant (CSR), both of which are owned by Sinara Handel, a company which is registered in Germany and is the commercial office of Russian group TMK, the world”s second largest producer of pipes.

In practice, around 60% of the 10.5 million euros for production will go to CSR for the acquisition of a yearly 120,000 tonnes of tiles needed in the production process.

Artrom has budgeted for turnover of 112 million euros this year, 83% up on 2004, based on boosting production by 20% to 79,000 tonnes of pipes per year, as well as increasing added value of products.

For this year the company expects its gross profits to reach 5.3 million euros, 82% higher than last year.

In 2006 the company hopes to achieve a production volume of around 90,000 tonnes of tubes. dan.zavoianu@zf.ro

COMPANIES

The Romanian refrigerator manufacturer Arctic estimates its investments for this year will amount to 10.5 million euros and lead to an increased production capacity of 900,000 units a year. The new investment will add to the 17 million euros already invested by the company in 2003 and 2004. “Arctic has set out to consolidate its leading position on the home appliances market,” said the new general manager of the company, Ugur Kayali. “The launch of the new range is the first step Arctic has taken towards achieving these goals.” A graduate of the Engineering University in Istanbul, the new Arctic general manager worked as chief executive of Arcelik Group (Arctic”s majority shareholder) in Tunusdan, in Tunisia, since 1998, before becoming country manager for the Beko brand (owned by Arcelik) in Germany in 2000. Corporate data show Arctic has a 30% market share on the electronics segment, 50% on the refrigerator segment, 18% on the washing machine segment (making it number three on the market) and 20% on the cooker segment (number two on the market). It reported a 132-million-euro turnover in 2004, up 30% on 2003. Arctic recently launched its “Diffusion” product range, which includes an Arctic refrigerator combo, a washing machine, cooker and TV set.