January the twentieth, 2021 – The Croatian wooden trade, extra exactly firms working inside this wider sector, have performed effectively regardless of the continuing pandemic which precipitated quite a few points with exports and imports all through 2020.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, resulting from their sturdy export orientation, owing to which this trade has a big international gross sales surplus, firms from the Croatian wooden trade did effectively in 2020. Regardless of the entire pressures on needing to have the identical or decrease gross sales costs, this sector has confirmed quite proof against the coronavirus disaster, and a few entities are even planning to spend money on increasing their manufacturing capacities.
Corporations working inside the Croatian wooden trade are subsequently making ready for extra important investments, corresponding to these within the Galekovic group owned by entrepreneur Mladen Galekovic, whose essential international market continues to be France, however after the primary lockdown they recorded nice development in North America, particularly in New York and Toronto, the place they’re reaching considerably greater costs.
In accordance with the director of the corporate PPS Galekovic, Filip Galekovic, this yr they’re planning important investments within the growth of their plant and the launch of latest merchandise, and as such they’re additionally contemplating the programme of prefabricated homes.
“Our exports elevated by 40% final yr, whereas complete revenues of about 16 million are solely 3% decrease than they had been the earlier yr, which was in any other case one of the best within the historical past of our enterprise. The primary wave of the pandemic shook us so much and we anticipated the worst, however from Could and June on, every thing began up once more. We export about 70% of our complete manufacturing, and it is price noting our give attention to the wants of Croatian building, which nonetheless works very effectively,” says Galekovic.
The newest information and a survey amongst wooden processors performed by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce are a mirror of final yr’s report within the trade within the space of parquet. Thus, within the manufacturing of completed parquets within the first 8 months of 2020, a report quantity manufacturing was achieved – amounting to 2,066,960 m2. For the second yr in a row, the export of parquet at double-digit charges is rising, however whereas the expansion within the ancient times was + 18%, in 2020 within the noticed interval it was 40%.
Parquet exports jumped from 26.948 million euros again in 2019 to 37.717 million euros in 2020, whereas then again imports decreased by 14%, down to three.67 million euros in the identical interval in 2020. This information is accompanied by a comparatively secure state of affairs within the Croatian wooden sector. That is evidenced by the administrators of Croatian wooden processing firms, and primarily based on a survey on the affect of the pandemic on their enterprise, it has been discovered that almost all of them recorded both development and improved liquidity or managed to take care of the identical stage of revenue (and the identical variety of workers), whereas solely a minority recorded a decline.
One of many Croatian wooden processing firms with the very best export development charges of as a lot as 50% was recorded by the Bjelin Group – an organization managed by Swedish-Croatian entrepreneur Darko Pervan. Final yr, this firm produced about 950,000 m2 of completed parquet, and exported about 870,000 m2. In accordance with the director of Bjelin, Stjepan Vojnic, the opening up of the Chinese language market a yr earlier, the place they noticed spectacular 100% development, helped them in that.
“The markets of Scandinavia and Benelux, the 2 conventional markets of the Bjelin Group, have additionally grown, however the Chinese language market has made the most important distinction. We’ve got very excessive expectations for 2021 as effectively,” says Vojinic, noting that final yr they employed about 60 new workers and are at present near 900 employees, they usually plan to extend that variety of new workers this yr as effectively.
So far as export progress is worried, the important thing system by which it has been achieved is market substitution. Whereas the corporate Pan Parket, in keeping with the only real founder and CEO Danijel Smiljanic, has changed the Chinese language market with that of Canada, and their exports and complete income development stands at round 10 p.c, Drvoproizvod noticed a drop in demand in April and Could within the French and Italian markets and elevated gross sales on the German market. In accordance with the director of Drvoproizvod, Igor Josip Lescic, the Croatian market has additionally proved secure as a result of massive variety of services which can be of their remaining phases of building and imply large jobs for flooring and parquet producers.
Lescic typically sees a chance for additional development within the reconstruction of buildings destroyed by the current Petrinja earthquake. It’s going to even be a chance for DI Spacva, which (in)instantly exports greater than 90% of its manufacturing. Final yr, it had a 7% drop in gross sales income (right down to 226 million kuna), whereas exports of completed parquets and rustic flooring elevated. This massive employer with 850 employees continues the tendencies seen final yr, in keeping with the President of the Administration Board of Spacva, Josip Faletar, with the assumption that the vaccine will play a significant position in normalising enterprise flows and gaining much more new enterprise alternatives.
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