Turkish URB Group, owner of the Barlad bearings plant, has called for the government’s support in the face of growing imports of counterfeit products and falling demand in the local market.
The Barlad plant is set to celebrate 60 years of existence and is currently able to manufacture over 7,000 types of bearings in over 20,000 variants.
Ismail Hakki Tuyun, financial director of URB Group, said: “The production needs to be supported. Investments need to be sustained by the state.”
He stated that URB has invested EUR 10 million to acquire equipment for the Barlad plant in the past two years.
“You have my full support for the bearings sector, which I consider illustrative from many points of view, as it’s fully private, for maintaining jobs in various corners of the country and for its presence in over 90 countries, in the same time fulfilling its obligations towards the Romanian state,” said Varujan Vosganian, Economy minister.
Vosganian invited URB Group to join the governmental commission that should complete a strategy for Romania reindustrialization by autumn.
URB Group exports 97 percent of the output in Barlad in Asia, Europe and America. Aside from Romania, the group operates plants in Turkey and Hungary. It plants to open a manufacturing unit in India later this year.
URB representatives argued the government should step in to limit industrial counterfeiting.
Esin Ugurtay, development director of URB Group, reckons the government should do more to increase the sale of domestically manufactured products.
Locally, URB Group supplies clients in the metallurgical, mining and car manufacturing industries.
Ovidiu Posirca