STEELMET: About 40% market share on the aluminium panels sector

Steelmet Romania, which sells products from Halcor (copper tubes), Elval (aluminum foil for construction) and Etem (Etalbond composite panels) on the Romanian market, announced the intention to record in the current financial year a turnover of around 24 million EUR, down from the 28 million EUR as has been reported in the previous year. The downward trend was caused by fluctuations in the international market of copper, whose volatility is very high. In what concerns the quantitative analysis, the experts from Steelmet predict a stabilization of deliveries on the copper segment at the level recorded in 2012. On the aluminum composite panels segment, the demand in the first three quarters of this year has increased substantially (+80%), a possible explanation of this growth being the massive withdrawal of competitors with Asian origin who promoted in the past some systems with questionable performance. Given the integration of Steelmet in the Greek group Viohalco - one of the biggest industrial holdings, with extensive activities in a variety of fields and which accounts for over 12% of Greece exports - the company has a comprehensive portfolio of products and benefits of the experience of specialized Viohalco teams in R&D activities. According to Michas Petros, the general manager of Steelmet Romania, this is a major competitive advantage for the company, the process of innovation being quite easy to implement and often reduced at a simple transfer of technology between companies that are part of the group. Another benefit provided by the organization in this manner is the flexibility in terms of logistics. Basically, partners from Romania can purchase specific products (aluminum composite panels) from Steelmet, which is the sole importer of the Greek provider, either from Etem Building Systems (the local subsidiary of Etem), or directly from the manufacturer. Therefore, the turnover declared in Romania is around 19 million EUR. By trying to optimize the services provided to customers and to meet all their requirements, the management team is permanently oriented toward strengthening the existing partnerships and establishing new collaborations.