The reason for this estimate is that the company became a high quality steel supplier for Ford Craiova in April after a four-year wait during which the US carmaker kept postponing the start of manufacturing. Its revenue stood at EUR98 million last year.
Bamesa Otel owns a plant in Topoloveni, 25 kilometers away from the Dacia plant in Mioveni (southern Romania) and will open a warehouse in Craiova to supply products used in the manufacturing of Ford’s B-Max model.
Bamesa came in Romania to become a Dacia supplier and its entire production at the time went to the plant in Mioveni. The carmaker currently accounts for 60% of Bamesa Otel’s business. The steel company signed with Ford and decided to build a warehouse in Craiova, which will become operational at the end of the year, to be close to Ford, said Gabriel Gahete, chief executive of Bamesa Otel.
He says the company he runs has no rivals for its services on the Romanian market.
Bamesa Group is built around specialized service centers which supply rolled steel products, mainly to the automotive and home appliances sector. Its only other production facility in the region is located in Turkey, where it operates as a supplier for the Renault Clio and Renault Megane models.
Bamesa Otel has recently decided to expand the production capacity of the plant in Topoloveni from 250,000 tons to 300,000 tons a year to be able to meet demand from Ford and other industrial companies.
The investment in expansion stands at 66.8 million lei (EUR14.6 million), of which about RON20 million are non-repayable. It will be completed next spring.
Bamesa has invested EUR50 million in Romania since its arrival in this country, which includes the ongoing investment. It does not buy steel from Galati (SE Romania, where the country’s largest steel mill owned by ArcelorMIttal is) because it does not make the high quality steel that it needs. Most of the steel is therefore shipped from Turkey, mainly from ArcelorMittal, Gahete said.
The company exports about 10,000 tons to Hungary and is in talks to export 20,000 tons to Germany and plans to enter the Bulgarian market, too.
The investment in Topoloveni is therefore intended to improve competitiveness of the company in the region and consolidate its market position. Bamesa Otel expects EUR5.5 million profit in 2012.
Once the investment completed, the plant will employ more than 100 people, 20% more than it does now and revenue will increase by 45% in five years from completion.
Bamesa Group has 13 steel service centers and five warehouses worldwide and posted $1.6 billion revenue in 2011.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)