Single specialized Romanian GSM antenna factory posts profit

The company owns a 6,000 square meter factory in Timisoara, the only Global System for Mobile (GSM) antenna factory in Romania, whose investment was worth €8.5 million.

“The factory now has 480 employees, who assemble some 20,000-25,000 antennas a month. Three weeks ago, we assembled the 400,000th antenna. Just to give you some idea, two or three trucks roll out of the factory doors every day, loaded with 20 tons of antennas,” according to a statement for Business Standard by Dan Tomin, the factory’s General Manager.

Kathrein Romania is currently working on a massive order for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) antennas for 2,100 MHz band frequency (for 3G mobile telephony). “Ninety-nine percent of production is exported, namely to the Kathrein distribution center, from where a large portion probably returns to Romania, for telecom clients. A mere 1 percent of production is distributed in Romania, to Orange, Vodafone, Cosmote, Zapp, Media Pro group, and Antena 1 TV channel.

Worldwide demand for antennas is on the rise, so the production area of the Timisoara factory is due to be increased by some 50 percent, as is the number of assembly line workers. The factory intends to have 600 employees by the end of the year.