
News Global Market Romania 2733 29 January 2024
At the first auctions for the sale of the plant, which were held last year, the starting price of the enterprise was €25-28 million
Romanian steel wire producer Dan Steel Group Beclean, which has been in bankruptcy since early 2023, was sold at a public auction for €7.5 million. The asset was bought by Intertranscom Impex SRL, a local welded mesh producer. This was reported by Romanian.Insider.
The new owner of the plant in Beşlani plans to resume production soon and turn the company into one of the main employers in the region. Dan Steel specializes in the production of nails, braided wire, welded mesh and panels, which are sold domestically and exported to Hungary, Poland, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The company’s capacity reaches 100 thousand tons of steel products per year. The assets include more than 40 hectares of land, buildings with a total usable area of 75.5 thousand square meters and related equipment.
The company imported raw materials from Ukraine, Italy, Poland, Belarus, and Moldova from suppliers such as ArcelorMittal, Metinvest, Belarusian Steel Plant, and Moldovan Steel Plant. Its main competitors were IS Campia Turzii, Ductil Steel Buzau and Metalicplas.
The company faced liquidity problems in 2017. Since then, the plant’s working capital has been declining and its debt has increased significantly. In 2018, the European Commission imposed restrictions on imports of certain categories of steel products, forcing the company to switch to raw materials from European suppliers with less favorable terms. This put additional pressure on the company’s financial position. In 2022, production fell by 26% – to 31.99 thousand tons. At the time of bankruptcy in early 2023, Dan Steel’s debt amounted to €35 million.
As GMK Center reported earlier, the initial value of Dan Steel at the first sale auctions was €25-28 million. Since there were no bidders for the plant at that price, the liquidators of the asset gradually reduced the price. The final price of the company fell by almost 4 times.