Fortus Iaşi enters the wind turbine components market full steam

Doru Mocanu, IaŞi

Ia i company Fortus SA produced 40 wind turbine shafts for Czech company BENE TRADE, which have already been delivered.

"The production of wind turbine shafts has become quite common for Fortus Iaşi, but what was different about this contract was the fact that the blocks used for casting were provided by the customer, while the forging, thermal treatment and machine work was executed in the sections of the Ia i plant", as stated in a press release of the Ia i heavy machinery producer.

This type of contract, based on using the customer"s own intermediate products, allowed a useful know-how exchange with the Czech experts and especially the assessment of the technology and production quality of other companies, operating in the same sector. The production of these turbine shafts, for the Czech customer, is part of the great European programs for exploiting renewable energy, increasing energy independence and reducing pollutant emissions. The know-how accumulated by Fortus by making wind turbine parts creates a good outlook for similar approaches when developing wind farms in Romania, the press release states.

In the mid 80"s, when the world economy was affected by the oil crisis and the issue of fossil fuel exhaustion was increasingly garnering attention, Romanian decision factors created a program for gaining national energy independence. This program intended the use of domestic energy sources and was focused on developing nuclear energy first and foremost, the use of lignite in thermoelectric nuclear plants, the development of hydroenergetic basins, the use of wind in wind farms, as well as other renewable sources.

"Hidroenergetica", part of the National Energy System, was one of the first state customers of Fortus Iaşi. Ever since 1983, the factory in Ia i has been producing important parts of the horizontal 13,97MW Kaplan-type turbines which were used in the string of micro-hydroelectric plants on the Olt river. Fortus Iaşi has become an important player among wind turbine makers across the world. The production of a wind turbine prototype began in Romania at the Boc a Machinery Factory, but it was abandoned after the 1989 revolution, and right now Romania does not have any homologated wind turbine project or prototype of its own. For wind turbines, Fortus Iaşi has produced generator shafts of 0.6 - 3.6 MW, which were intended for customers from all over the world. "Concerning Romania, the workable potential is about 3600 MW, with an energy output of approximately 8000 GWh/year. This is the equivalent of about 1500 wind turbines, which means an impressive amount of complex machinery, that could be produced by the Romanian equipment producers. The specialized research institutes could develop a prototype for an efficient Romanian wind turbine, which could be produced by Fortus, as well as other Romanian companies. Investors in wind farms could only stand to gain by investing in wind turbines produced at lower costs", Gheorghe Chişcă, general manager of Fortus SA Iaşi, said.

In his opinion, 20 years after the aforementioned energy independence program has been drafted, and after undergoing a process of radical political and economic changes, Romania, which is now a member of the European Union, continues to face the same energy problems, except that now, based on the international treaties, its goal is to use renewable resources to produce 24% of the gross domestic consumption. Concerning electricity, through the accession treaty, Romania pledged to increase its renewable energy production by 2015 to 35% of the gross domestic electricity consumption, and to 38% in 2020. In this context, the fact that Fortus SA Iaşi has already proven its expertise in making products for the energy sector, represents an advantage that the Ia i company is expected to exploit in the upcoming period, in the context of national policies for the development of renewable energy and for supporting Romanian producers.

The heavy equipment producer Ia i producer, which produced its first steel batch in 1978, has remained the main industrial platform with an streamlined production process and a unified Romanian management, which, operates on the heavy machinery market, producing equipment for the mining, energy, cement, food, and naval industry. Despite its strategic importance, the company is currently subject to an insolvency procedure demanded by the creditors. According to the reorganization plan, which is to be submitted for approval, several plots of land, unused production facilities, as well as obsolete equipment will be auctioned off to pay the company"s outstanding debt to its 108 creditors. Fortus" current outstanding debt amounts to approximately 75 million Euros, out of which almost 60 million outstanding to the Tax Department of the County of Ia i.

Following the cancellation of the privatization contract last summer, the Authority for State Assets Recovery (AVAS) regained control of the majority stake, thus owning 60.03% of the shares. Metalexportimport (the former majority shareholder) owns 26.23%, whereas SIF Moldova holds 13.56%, and other shareholders own 0.17%.