Carlo Beltrame, the AFV Beltrame group's business development manager and CEO of France and Romania Donalam, has recently explained in an interview company’s current situation and plans particularly for Romanian assets.
Accordingly, the firm's plans for 2024 include continuing to invest in facilities while also focusing on decarbonization. For plant investments, the company is anticipating spending 16 million € on refurbishing the present steel mill and rolling mills in Targoviste, as well as 4 million € on capex investment in Calarasi.
In addition, the planned projects for renovating the plants in Calarasi and Targoviste were completed, with over 30 million € invested throughout 2023.
However, based on Carlo Beltrames' remarks, 2024 will not be any easier than 2023 because the world will still be fighting inflation, and the steel industry will still have to deal with several issues like rising energy costs, a crisis in raw materials, low demand, low steel prices, and a labor shortage.
Despite a challenging and stressful previous year due to rising energy and raw material costs, the company reported sales of more than 155,000 mt of construction steel and special steels in the first nine months of 2023. The company has retained 24 percent share of the domestic market of Romania only one year after resuming operations, while the rest of the volumes are being sourced from abroad, particularly from nearby European countries, Turkey and Egypt.