Ploiesti, Saint Gobain's next target after Calarasi

The value of the investments French group Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s leading glass producers is making in Romania could exceed 140 million euros, considering company officials have announced they have other projects besides the facility in Calarasi.

Michel Hue, the representative of the Eurasia division of the French group stated that Saint-Gobain would allocate some 40 million euros for building a factory somewhere around Ploiesti, set to make glass wool used for building insulation.

“This is a project under development, which consists in buying a facility and doubling it with a new modern one. The project will begin in mid 2006 and the output of the factory will be both sold on the domestic market and exported,” Hue was quoted as saying by Mediafax. He added the total value of the project could be modified.

The statements were made on the occasion of the start of the construction works on the float glass (used in both constructions and in the automotive industry) factory in Calarasi, a project worth 100 million euros.

The factory in Calarasi will be completed in September 2006 and its production capacity will be 180,000 tonnes a year (600 tonnes a day).

Nearly half of the output will be supplied to the states in the Balkan area at first, and the export share in the total sales will increase.

The company officials estimate the new production facility will post approximately 60 million-euro turnover a year.

The investment Saint-Gobain will make in Calarasi will change the entire make-up of the area. In a county where the unemployment rate is one of the highest in the entire country, 25%, the company will create 200 direct jobs and generate a further 1,500 indirect jobs. At the same time, the new investment will turn Calarasi into one of the top counties in southern Romania, given that it managed to attract a mere 36 million euros in foreign investment last year.

“The specifics of the Saint-Gobain project in the Calarasi County could be summarised like this: we are talking about a strong investor, about a county that has been ailing from the lack of foreign investment thus far, which generates jobs, and we are talking about an investment for both the domestic market and for export. It is also a good message for other areas foreign investments have yet to reach,” stated Alexandru Popa, chairman of the Romanian Agency for Foreign Investments.
miruna.lebedencu@zf.ro