The company’s total investment budget for 2008 will exceed $100 mln (€70.20 mln), similar to the 2007 level. The company has already decided to finance the acquisition of a new engine for the heavy plate laminator and new equipment for gas purification in 2008, CEO of Arcelor Mittal Galati, Augustine Kochuparampil, told Business Standard. The company also intends to apply an automatic measuring system and modernize the number 1 coking battery. “We target the production of 6 million tons of steel in 2009-2010, from the 4.6 million tons registered last year,” Kochuparampil said. The heavy plate production is to be increased to 2.5 mln tons from 1.6 mln tons in 2006.
“We want to improve the quality and increase the variety of our products, to offer products with higher added value, and export more to the European Union,” added the CEO of Arcelor Mittal Galati. To this end, the company will focus on the increasing demand for oil pipes, windmill plates, and steel for the naval and car industries, according to Kochuparampil. Arcelor Mittal Galati will invest $107 mln (€75.11 mln) in 2007. “By the end of next month we might finish an investment in the fourth furnace, similar to that in the fifth furnace, with an estimated value of $7.5 million [€5.26 mln],” said Kochuparampil.
Regarding the company’s plans to become energetically independent, Kochuparampil said several solutions are currently being evaluated. Arcelor Mittal is also considering the possibility of hiring a third party to build an electricity production plant.
Iron and steel plants in Romania earned more than €1.5 bln in business in the first quarter of 2007, and registered cumulated net profits of some €44 mln. Arcelor Mittal Galati, Romania’s largest steel producer, posted €1.1 bln worth of net sales and some €30 mln in net profit in the first half of 2007, according to company data reported to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
