Walter Tosto WTB - open letter to the Government of Romania
Bucharest, 02.11.2020
Lucian Rusu is the general manager of Walter Tosto WTB that belongs to the Tosto group (the last turnover: 220 million euros, employees: 1200), a group of companies with production activities in Italy and Romania, considered among the most important manufacturers of critical equipment for industrial installations worldwide.
In Bucharest there is a real estate speculation that could cause damage to the Romanian industry
In 2012, the Tosto group took over in Bucharest the company FECNE (equipment factory for Nuclearo Electric power plants), today Walter Tosto WTB, located on the IMGB industrial platform (heavy car company Bucharest).
"When it was purchased, the company did not work anymore. However, being able to count on a huge potential infrastructure and with ideal road links for an industry that needs logistics for exceptional transit, such as DN4 road, which connects Bucharest by Oltenita, designed for the transport of the big industrial products from the area of the IMGB areaIncrease, ”says Mr. Lucian Rusu.We invested about 30 million euros for the modernization of the Fecne factory with the restructuring of factories, offices and machines, with an Italian technological know-how, organizing high-site specialization courses for mechanical and technical operators.
In a few years, the Fecne has positioned itself on the market as a first-line producer-qualifying in the specific sector in which it supplies for large companies in the field of oil, chemistry, petrochemistry, nuclear-and were employed, only at our headquarters in Bucharest, over 250 employees, including qualified operators, as well as technicians.
Recently, the Tosto group has invested in Romania to build a new factory in Oltenita, on the banks of the Danube River.This is an extension of the factory in Bucharest and is used to assemble very large equipment - even over 900 tons.
The result of these investments is that we built, in favor of the Romanian market and the Romanian community, an independent company, which produces GDP on the local market and which increases from year to year (the turnover of 2019 has exceeded 25 million euros and is estimated that it will exceed 30 million in 2020) and guarantees jobs for Romanian workers.
Prior to the 1990s, several companies were working on the IMGB platform (Fecne, General Turbo, Upetrolam, Romenergo Mechanical, Forja and Turnoria IMGB), in that area being 13,000 employees.
At that time, all these factories worked interdependently, making integrated products such as turbines, equipment for the energy, nuclear, chemical and petrochemical industry, as well as for the naval industry.
In 1998, the company IMGB was privatized being taken over by the Norwegian company Kverner, paying the state a very low price.In 2006, Doosan counted the Tower and IMGB cast iron that also invested in the modernization and automation of the machines and installations, being able to count on a total area of over 50 hectares.
In the coming years, the factory has achieved high production performances.Despite this, unfortunately, the South Korean group decided to close the factory in Bucharest which, according to the press, was sold to SIF Banat Crișana, being intended for the real estate sector, for the construction of buildings for housing and commercial buildings.
If this change of use were materialized, the problem would be alarming for most of the country's economy that is based on industrial production and which guarantees to Romania a significant level of exports.
The construction of non-industrial complexes in the IMGB area, established since 1960 with all the infrastructures necessary for commercial operations, would cancel all the investments that various factories in the mechanical sector have made in the past, with serious consequences for the future of the area.
Such a real estate speculation in an industrial area would cause the activity of the production companies and would be forced to close or move production elsewhere.
The companies present on the platform consider this step a disaster that cannot be done in this area, because for these real estate projects it could certainly find a more suitable location in other urban areas.
On the other hand, the former IMGB-Doosan factory, with its new dimensions and capacities, could attract local or foreign industrial investors to relaunch the production activity and to hire more workers from the remaining factory, from one day to another, without a job.
Also, all this would happen precisely during the period when the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, which decides to build two new units, would need more than Romanian industrial partners, whose companies could give a strong impulse to local economic growth.
In my opinion, Romania has all the capabilities to become a great industrial power in the coming years, but to ensure that this is necessary to maintain its production, as it happened in Korea and Turkey.
Korea, in the past, a poor country without natural resources, whose economy was based until the 1980s, especially on agriculture, implemented a strict economic policy, focusing on technology and industry.The consequence was a significant increase being a world leader in several sectors.Even Turkey, despite a tumultuous past of coups that led the country to poverty, managed to restart the industry, becoming a great power in the energy sector.
Therefore, the government must understand the importance of the industry as a motor force of exports and intervene to protect and encourage it, with appropriate tax measures to make the platform become a protected industrial park.
For all of the above, I consider that the problem is of national interest and, therefore, we trust in an intervention of the Romanian government meant to prevent this harmful real estate speculation.
The Tosto group is willing to open a dialogue with the authorities to discuss any proposals that would avoid the destination of the IMGB industrial platform, causing damage to its industrial vocation, with serious consequences on production and employment.
With thanks,
Lucian Rusu General Manager
Walter Tosto WTB SRL
