Rostramo expects 30m RON turnover

Targu-Jiu-based Rostramo, a company operating in the wood-processing industry, estimates a turnover of 30 million RON (8.4 million euros) for this year, 30% more than last year. “In 2005, we have seen sales worth 23.7 million RON (6.5 million euros), a drop of 30.7 million RON (7.5 million euros) against a year ago,” stated Marcel Cocan, the company”s general manager. For this year, Rostramo expects to break even, with the company having seen losses of almost 3 million RON (810,000 euros) in 2005. “In 2005, we lost some 4.2 million RON (1.15 million euros) due to the trend of the exchange rate. We mainly export furniture, with our main markets being the UK, Spain and Germany,” Ciocan added. Rostramo mainly produces furniture (chairs, beech timber board and particleboard), 90% of which is exported. “In 2005, we reduced the weight of exports to 75% of the total output, in an attempt to diminish losses caused by the strong RON,” Cocan said. He says that while revenues resulted from exports are dropping due to the exchange rate, all the other costs (for natural gas, electricity, fuel, wood mass) have been going up and will continue to do so. ZF