AFV Beltrame intends to invest €20 million in Romanian plants in 2024

AFV Beltrame, an Italian producer of industrial bars and special profiles, intends to invest €20 million in Romanian plants this year. This is reported by SteelOrbis, citing an interview with Carlo Beltrame, Group Business Development Manager and CEO of Donalam’s French and Romanian divisions.

The company plans to spend €16 million on the reconstruction of existing steel and rolling facilities in Tirgoviste and has planned €4 million for capital investments in Calarasi.

In addition, the planned reconstruction projects in these two cities were completed, with more than €30 million invested in 2023.

The company’s plans for 2024 include continued investment in production capacity and a focus on decarbonization. However, Carlo Beltrame predicts that the current year will not be easier than 2023, in particular because the steel industry will still face a number of challenges. These include rising energy prices, the commodity crisis, low demand, low steel prices and labor shortages.

In 9 months of 2023, AFV Beltrame sold over 155 thousand tons of construction and specialty steel and retained a 24 percent share of the Romanian domestic market just a year after resuming operations.

In addition, in early February, AFV Beltrame announced the acquisition of Idroelettriche Riunite, an Italian company operating in the renewable energy sector. With this acquisition, the group now owns 12 hydroelectric power plants distributed between Veneto and Piedmont.

This transaction marks a significant step forward in AFV Beltrame’s investment journey to develop a decarbonization plan starting in 2022.

«With the acquisition and incorporation of Idroelettriche Riunite, we are reinforcing the rigorous strategy we have developed to reduce CO₂ emissions by supplying energy from renewable sources… It is important to note that the energy produced by the 12 hydroelectric power plants will not be sold on the market for speculative purposes, but will be used for internal consumption at our group’s production facilities,» explained Raffaele Ruella, Managing Director of AFV Beltrame Group.

As GMK Center reported earlier, last summer, AFV Beltrame Group announced that it had suspended production at some of its plants in the European Union amid rising production costs.