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The eBearing News
February 23, 2005
Rulmenti Barlad Will
Build Bearing Factory in Turkey
copyright © 2005 eBearing Inc.
SC Rulmenti SA Barlad (Romania) announced it has reached agreement with a consortium of Turkish
industrial distributors to build a joint venture bearing manufacturing plant there.
Rulmenti Barlad, one of Romania's largest bearing manufacturing plants, is a division of
industrial conglomerate Kombassan Holding AS. Kombassan purchased the former
state-run bearing factory from the Romanian Privatization Administration in June 2000.
Rulmenti Barlad manufactures ball and roller bearings under the Romanian umbrella URB brand,
and since the acquisition now produces bearings under its own KRS (Kombassan) brand.
Kombassan Holding AS started in 1989 and now Turkey's largest and most influential industrial
and manufacturing conglomerate. Kombassan encompasses over 100 companies and 37 factories
across Turkey and other countries. It owns banks, supermarkets, a tourism and hotel group,
paper and tire manufacturing operations, the bearing business, and even the U.S. retail
chain, Hit or Miss.
The new bearing factory, to be built in Duzce (pronounced DOOZ-jeh), Turkey, is projected to come online sometime
in 2006. Cost of the project is expected to be at least USD $6 million. The company said
it projects first-year bearing sales, leveraged by its distributor-investors, will reach USD $10 million.
Initially, the Duzce plant will produce only deep-groove radial ball bearings, but the product line
is expected to gradually broaden to all types of bearings now produced in Romania.
Rulmenti Barlad will hold 50.1% ownership and management control of the Duzce venture; the
other investors will share 49.9%.
Turkey, rather than Romania, became the preferred site for a number of reasons.
Not only is parent Kombassan headquartered in Turkey, across the Black Sea from Romania, but Romania and
Turkey now have a mutual free trade agreement, eliminating tariffs and duties on all imports and exports.
This makes it possible, as Rulmenti Barlad alluded to in its announcement, for the company to manufacture
in Turkey and sell in Romania.
Duzce, in hilly northwestern Turkey, has a population of 80,000 and is one of the country's most
developed industrial regions.
Centrally located 228km east of Istanbul and 240km west of Ankara, the area has an established
industrial base of forestry, auto parts, textiles, guns, cement, pharmaceuticals, nuts and tobacco.
However, Duzce, also sits on top of the North Anatolian Fault, a 1,400km-long geologic fault line which
is one of the most seismically active places in the world. Among the worst quakes striking the area have
been a 1939 quake which killed 45,000, and an August 1999 quake which left 20,000 dead. A magnitude
7.2 earthquake centered in Duzce on November 12, 1999 left 845 dead, 5,000 injured, and the city
groping for survival as many people moved away.
Since then, regional Duzce and Turkish government business incentive programs have been developed to
attract investment and rebuilding projects to the area, particularly targeting manufacturing businesses.
Making its decision about where to locate in Turkey, Rulmenti Barlad specifically cited the generous
incentive packages available in the Duzce region, in addition to the built-in local demand
for its bearings.
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- by Bruce A. Carr
from individual research,
tips and commercial sources.
Copyrighted material; unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
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