After the acquisition of COS Targoviste in March this year, AFV Beltrame Group, one of the largest producers of steel bars and special steels in Europe, started the process of staff recruitment and modernisation of the plant and started the production of rebar under the Donalam brand, thus reaching two steel processing plants in Calarasi and Targoviste. The company thus becomes the only full-cycle rebar producer in Romania, supplying about half of the domestic needs in the construction sector, to end the dependence of the local market on imports from Europe and abroad.
In order to relaunch the activity of the plant, Beltrame Group has so far hired about 300 employees, some of them former employees of COS Targoviste, and by the end of July, it intends to reach 450 employees.
In the first phase, about 10,000 tons of rebar/month will leave the Donalam Târgoviște mill, and in 2023 the production capacity will increase to about 30,000 tons/month, meaning more than 300,000 tons/year. Thus, the plant will supply Romania with about half of its domestic needs of rebar for construction, which is around 600,000 – 700,000 tons per year. Romania imports all of this material from countries such as Bulgaria and Turkey.
“The restart of domestic production of rebar, an important sector of the steel industry, is an important step towards Romania’s reindustrialisation and will provide the country with a breath of oxygen in the crisis of construction materials caused by the pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine. With the planned investments in the modernization and development of production facilities, the Târgoviște plant will once again become a backbone of the Romanian economy”, said Carlo Beltrame, Group Business Development at AFV Beltrame.
The Beltrame Group’s vision is to transform the old steelworks into a competitive European production facility, both in terms of efficiency and the environment. Over the next 5 years, around €100 million will be invested in modernising the machinery and 80 percent of the budget will be allocated to the purchase of technologies to reduce carbon emissions, increase energy efficiency and move towards a circular economy by reusing resources and minimising waste. By the fifth year of the investment, around 1,000 local jobs will be created.
In addition to the commissioning of the former steel mill, Beltrame is in the final stages of authorising a green rebar and wire rod plant, which will also be built on the Targoviste site. The new steel mill will be the most technologically advanced in the world and will have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions in the industry. The project also includes the construction of a photovoltaic park, with an installed capacity of 100-120 MW and an energy storage system, which will supply the production units.
With the completion of this green plant, expected in 2024, the total production capacity of Donalam Targoviste will be around 700,000 – 800,000 tons of rebar and wire rods annually. In the construction sector, the total domestic consumption of rebar and wire is around 1.5 million tons/year.
By 2022, the Beltrame Group estimates a turnover of around €140 million in Romania, a similar level to 2021.
