AlbanianEconomy.comYour News from Albania
Kurum international closed its 100 million USD business in Albania
announced the closing of its steel-production plant in Elbasan, in central Albania, due to
several competitive disadvantages incurred last year.
of factors such as higher electricity price, poor transportation
infrastructure, lower customs tariffs for imported steel and lower domestic
scrap reserves”, the company announced.
Kurum commenced its activity in Albania in 1998. During 2005, total
production reached 145,000 tones for a total market value of USD 100 million.
According the company data, 90 % of all production was sold
to the domestic market, while about 10 % was exported to FYROM.
Electricity supply problems affecting the country had adversely
affect the company’s activities since 2001. It was at that time that
electricity consumption had overran domestic production and the imports were hard
to secure due poor and insufficient network capacities.
“In Albania
we bought our electricity for LEK 9 (USD 8.7 cent, EUR 7.3 cent) per Kwh. Meanwhile,
our international competitors buy their electricity for less then USD 3 cent,”
Kurum Albania
director, Zeki Kaya, said.
In 2006, the Albanian government lowered its custom tariffs
for imported steel to 10 % compared to 15 % in 2005, under obligations to the
WTO association agreement.
Kurum said that their total investments for steel production
in Albania
reached USD 65 million at the end of 2005, meanwhile their business plan was implemented
only by 12 %.
The company covered about 65% of the Albanian steel market.
