INTERVIEW - Serbia's Trimo Engineering Sees Turnover Falling 25%-30%, Exports Doubling in 2009

The company has kept its output unchanged from 2008, while doubling exports to 20%.

“Our 2008 production totalled more than 300,000 square metres. Given that the crisis hit Serbia’s construction industry as early as the fourth quarter of last year, we have adapted our projections to the new conditions so that our 2009 output matched that of last year,” Trimo Engineering CEO Damir Kocan told SeeNews in an e-mailed interview.

Trimo Engineering plans to maintain its exports at their current level next year.

“Some estimates show that the final indicators for this year, generally speaking, will show that the total market of solutions for steel buildings and facades has shrunk by between 30% and 40%,” Kocan said, adding that Trimo Engineering held close to 60% of Serbia’s stone wool market in 2008.

Serbia's August construction output, measured by the estimated value of completed projects, fell by 14.3% year-on-year, data from the country's statistics office showed last month. Construction output in August was 14% lower than a month earlier. A total of 771 construction permits were issued in August, down 12.1% from a year earlier.

“We can talk about more tangible results only at the end of this year but we expect that our share in Serbia’s stone wool market will be higher this year compared to last year’s,” Kocan said without elaborating.

Trimo Engineering exports to Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, Switzerland and several northern African countries.

Trimo has invested some 18 million euro so far in its Serbian factory, which it opened in the northern province of Vojvodina in 2007.

“It is still early to talk about the financial indicators for this year, given that the fiscal year has not wrapped up yet.

A number of contracts is yet to be fulfilled before the year is over because investors have been postponing their completion until the last minute due to the general situation – and now they are in a rush. This will bring about positive results,” Kocan explained.

Trimo Engineering earned a CE marking this year, meaning that its products have met consumer safety, health and environmental requirements of the European Union, making it the only Serbian company to do so far, Kocan said.

($=0.6963 euro)