February 22 (SeeNews) - Romania has the potential to become an important international player in the nuclear power plants (NPPs) decommissioning industry, with local heavy machines maker Titan Masini Grele (TMG) to play a key role, according to economy minister Alexandru Petrescu.
"The competitive advantages and expertise of Romanian companies specialized in energy, mechanics or automation, which can be involved in activities for the decommissioning of nuclear power plants are not being used enough, so we need an aggregator to maximize the common potential in this activity which is still untapped in Romania," Petrescu said in a press release late on Tuesday following a visit to TMG's headquarters in Bucharest.
The economy ministry aims to create a cluster of companies specialised in decommissioning of NPPs, so that Romania could become an active player on this market with a huge potential for the country's economy.
At the base of the cluster would stand Titan Echipamente Nucleare [Titan Nuclear Equipment], a TMG subsidiary specialised in manufacturing nuclear equipment. The company also aims to develop its decommissioning services by establishing partnerships with Romanian industrial companies in order to tap into international markets, according to the press release.
Established in 1963 as the Bucharest Machine Tools and Aggregates Enterprise, the company specialised in producing high precision machine tools and aggregates, programmed machines with optical and numerical reading for other machine-building enterprises. At the time, the company employed some 6,000 people.
In 1998, the company was bought by U.S. industrial group Yared and renamed to Titan Masini Grele, which kept the core business activity, and added two subsidiaries - Titan Echipamente Nucleare and Titan Masini de Precizie.
TMG posted a profit of 2.7 million lei ($630,046/ 597,913 euro) in 2015, up 52% compared to the previous year, figures posted on the website of the finance ministry show. The company's turnover increased 44% in 2015, reaching 74.2 million lei.
TMG has 462 employees
(1 euro=4.5157 lei)