Beltrame Group gets green light for COS Targoviste acquisition

Beltrame Group, one of Europe’s largest producers of steel bars and special steels, received authorisation from the Competition Council for the acquisition of the functional production assets of the Special Steel Plant in Targoviste. The value of the transaction amounts to 38.3 million Euro + VAT.

In addition to the value of the acquisition, AFV Beltrame Group will invest around 100 million Euro in the next few years in modernising the equipment in the current plant. To this will be added the working capital and the construction of a new eco-intelligent plant for the production of rebar and wire rod, estimated at about 300 million Euro.

Present on the Romanian steel market since 2007, where it owns the rolling mill in Calarasi through its subsidiary Donalam, AFV Beltrame Group wants to expand its activity in Romania by acquiring and reopening the steel production unit owned by COS Targoviște SA, a company currently under judicial reorganization, pending the resolution of the appeal against the Court’s decision to declare bankruptcy.

The Beltrame Group aims to transform the COS Targoviste plant into a European competitive special steel production unit. Thus, over the next 4 years, about 100 million Euro will be invested in modernising the machinery, respectively the steelshop and the rolling mills as well as approximately 40-50 million euro in providing working capital.

At the beginning about 450-500 jobs will be created, with the aim of increasing capacity to about 1,000 new jobs in the coming years. Currently, about 90 employees are working at COS Targoviste to keep the utilities up and running and maintain the equipment.

 “We are excited to expand our business in Romania with one of the most important steel plants and to revitalize the domestic production of both special steel and rebar, both of which are needed in many industries. We have included COS Targoviste in our investment plans as it is a steel plant with a rich history and a lot of experience in the steel industry, and the products that can be produced here are complementary to the steel bars we already produce in Donalam Calarasi. We will create a synergy with the rolling mill we own in Calarasi and the Târgoviṣte mill will return to the production of special steels for which it was originally built. We will start production in the existing steel mill and the two rolling mills as soon as possible. At first we will produce rebar, even if the plant cannot be competitive for this product, and later we will produce special steel, as the latter is more difficult to produce and requires more time to train the workforce. I am sure that in a couple of years we will have the same range of steels that we have now at Donalam”, said Carlo Beltrame, Group Business Development at AFV Beltrame.

In addition, in 2022, AFV Beltrame Group will start the construction of a new 300 million Euro project in Targoviste in an eco-friendly plant that will produce rebar and wire rod. The construction will take a maximum of 4 years, at the end of which the production capacity will be approx. 600 thousand tons/year.