It is at that time that the businessman who owns Grampet group, which includes Romania’s largest private freight rail carrier, Grup Feroviar Roman (GFR), decided to “restore the Electroputere name to its rightful place”.
“When I went to China and visited the largest rolling stock plant in the world, CNR, the chairman there asked me two questions about Romania: whether we were still making movies and how Electroputere was doing,” Gruia Stoica says.
“It was the second time I felt a stab through my heart, after that moment when Electroputere’s privatization committee failed to understand Grampet’s project and did not have the proper vision to asses the strength of the Electroputere brand for the Romanian industry and how making Electroputere branded locomotives can benefit the Romanians and the state budget.”
At the time he says he decided he had to do something about Electroputere and last year bought the locomotive unit, which owner Al Arrab had closed. The businessman plans to develop Craiova into an important regional hub for Romania’s and Europe’s rail industry.
“Our goal is to do what we can to keep the Romanian railway industry going, but we need the authorities to not ignore us, because this is a strategically important industry for the country (…)”
Electroputere’s division assembling diesel electric locomotives (urban and railway vehicles – VFU) started with a 1963 Brown Boveri license and a 1967 Asea license. After 1990, the technology gap rendered it unable to sign any more contracts to sell new locomotives, reveals a release Electroputere SA sent to the Bucharest Stock Exchange on Monday. The same source says Romania’s state-owned railway company, CFR, its traditional client, did not order any more new locomotives after Electroputere’s VFU unit.
Electroputere SA general meeting of shareholders decided to close the VFU unit last April. GFR, VFU’s main customer in the last two years, took over the technical documents, the brand and the remaining staff (about 90 people).
Finance Ministry data show GFR to have posted 761 million lei (EUR174 million) revenue in 2011 and RON28.9 million net profit. Customers include OMV Petrom (SNP.RO), Lafarge, Dacia and Mechel.
“I’ve been interested in the privatization of CFR Marfa (Romania’s state-run freight rail carrier i.e.) for 12 years. I am considering participating in it, but not at all costs. It is hard to believe the Romanian government will strike off CFR Marfa’s debts. Grampet – Grup Feroviar Roman’s participation depends on how this goes, too,” Gruia Stoica said.
He added that even though the focus will be on CFR Marfa, he strongly felt that the mission of the Transport Ministry and of those who run it is to set an integrated strategy for all the transport sectors, which should benefit the entire country and its budget.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)