October 20 (SeeNews) - Swedish industrial components manufacturer AQ Group said on Thursday that it sees opportunities to generate 40 million euro ($39.3 million) in 2023 from sales of battery systems to be produced at its planned factory in Pernik, western Bulgaria.
The first battery systems made in this factory are set to be delivered by the end of 2022 and it will start operating at full capacity in the first quarter of 2023, AQ Group said in an interim financial report.
In the third quarter, AQ Group generated 6 million euro after delivering its first battery storage systems produced from existing Bulgarian operations.
The Swedish company has been conducting intensive refurbishments at the Pernik site, which it accessed at the start of the third quarter.
AQ group already has sales, product development and production operations in Bulgaria through three local subsidiaries which operate five sites in Sofia, Radomir, Godech, Kyustendil in western Bulgaria, and Veliko Tarnovo.
The construction of the Pernik factory, in western Bulgaria, and the purchase of required equipment were among the group's largest single investments in the first nine months of 2022 and were worth a total of 85 million Swedish crowns ($7.6 million/7.7 million euro).
Although the war in Ukraine has not had a noticeable impact on AQ Group's activities as it has no production units in Ukraine, Russia or Belarus, the Swedish company has received several orders from customers that rely on production from its factories in Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Bulgaria, it said.
AQ Group booked an organic growth of 31% in the third quarter due to the global demand in electrification systems and components.
In June, AQ Group announced an investment of 5 million euro to acquire and overhaul a facility, which will produce sheet metal housings and carry out electrical integration for large grid-connected battery energy storage systems (BESS).
($ = 0.9443 euro)