site.btaBulgarian Metal Industry Reports LV 7 Bln Output

Bulgarian Metal Industry Reports LV 7 Bln Output

Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria, November 5 (BTA) - The Bulgarian
metal industry has an annual outout of 7 billion leva and
accounts for 10-12 per cent of the total industrial production,
the Bulgarian Association of the Metallurgical Industry said
during observances of the Day of Metal Worker held in the KZM
non-ferrous metals works in Plovdiv.

The export of metal products makes up over 15 per cent of the
total export. The output in the non-ferrous metal industry is
close to 80 per cent of the total production in the sector.

Over 4 billion leva was invested in enw high-tech productions,
machines and equipment for production and processing of ferrous
and non-ferrous metals. The investments totalled over 200
million leva last year alone.

Some 100 million dollars will be invested in the second stage of
modernization of KZM-Plovdiv, said KZM Board of Directors
chairman Nikola Dobrev. In the recent years, KZM has been
implementing a modernization programme which has so far absorbed
over 200 million leva.

"This is the true reindustrialization. This is a company that
lives up to the 21st century standards, not an awaken dinosaur,"
said UniCerdit Bulbank CEO Levon Hampartsoumyan. Bulbank has
provided a 47.5 million euro loan for the KZM modernization.