General Electric Contemplates Making Wind Turbine Components At Fortus - Iaşi

Doru Mocanu,Iaşi

General Electric has started a process of evaluating and auditing the technical potential of Fortus S.A. - Iaşi in view of establishing long-term production of heavy components for wind turbines, Fortus representatives announced. The technical audit started with site surveys at the production units of Fortus S.A. and will continue with specific qualification procedures at the end of which Fortus may obtain the status of certified supplier to General Electric. Following discussions with General Electric representatives, the Fortus S.A. management emphasized their willingness to allocate all necessary resources for developing a partnership of such importance and proportion.

The business opportunity comes in the context that the development of a wind energy industry in Romania is starting to take shape. For the time being, General Electric has won a contract to supply the 132 wind turbines required for the Fantanele Wind Park in Dobruja. Moreover, as a member of the European Union, Romania needs to derive 35% of the national gross energy consumption from renewable sources by 2015. The quota is scheduled to increase to 38% by 2020.

Fortus S.A. - Iaşi is the only Romanian manufacturer of heavy components for wind turbines and has the advantage of geographical proximity to the wind parks planned for construction in the country. The plant has already delivered approximately 400 generator shafts for wind turbines with a power output between 0.6 and 3.6 MW installed in various parts of the world.

The heavy machinery manufacturer, which made their first batch of steel in 1978, remains the only industrial platform with integrated technological flows and unitary management in Romania which produces heavy machinery for the mining industry, the energy industry, the cement industry, shipyards and other major industrial customers. The integrated technological flows enable the conversion of scrap iron and other raw materials into intermediate products obtained by casting, forging or mechanized welding, which are subsequently processed into complex machinery for the major industries.

Fortus S.A. has an extensive customer portfolio including IHC (Holland), BEFON (Serbia), PSP Engineering (Czech Republic), Exim Trade (France), BH Wachtberg (Germany), Lafarge (France), Holcim (Switzerland) and UEI (Egypt). On the domestic market, Fortus works with ROMINEX - Timisoara, Arhipro - Bucharest, FEPA - Barlad, Fibec - Buzau, Donalm - Calarasi, Mechel - Targoviste, Ductil Steel - Buzau and the Constanta Naval Shipyard. The production value planned for 2008 is 83.6 million RON.