Karlovac Pump Manufacturer Breaks Losing Trend

The Karlovac company Croatia pumpe Nova will finish, according to the assessment of director Andrija Babac, at a “positive zero”, thus ending the long-standing losing trend of the company, the successor of Croatia pumpi d.d. in dormancy.

According to Aleksandar Kraljić, a member of the Management Board of Croatia pumpe Nova, his father Stjepan Kraljić’s Strojopromet has invested more than 20 million kuna in their rehabilitation since the end of 2006, when it took over Croatia pumpe. Croatia pumpe were sold at the end of the 90s, after an unsuccessful first privatization, to the American company OJIM of Croatian entrepreneur Mijo Radočaj, after whose years of disappointing business operations debts exceeding 30 million kuna were incurred, so Croatia pumpe was taken over, along with the state, by one of the main creditors, Kraljić’s Strojopromet. To prevent the project of reviving Croatia pumpe from collapsing under the burden of remaining debts, mainly to the state, the solution was found in freezing the operations of Croatia pumpi d.d., and the workers and all operations were transferred to the newly established company Croatia pumpe Nova d.o.o.

Part of Strojopromet’s investments also related to the reorganization of operations, equipping the depleted engineering staff, necessary modernization of the machinery fleet and informatization, as well as marketing and processing of former markets. This resulted, say Kraljić and Babac, in an increase in contracted business in 2008 by 82 percent compared to 2007, along with a return to many relevant, and meanwhile privatized companies from the former Yugoslavia. Specifically, among the important projects is the recent commissioning of nine large pumps of new design at the US Steel plant in Smederevo, 29 pumps were delivered to the Arcelor Mittal plant in Zenica, and these and several other projects, such as for the water supply in Belgrade or for the Kolubara thermal power plant, were won in international tenders. Large pumps for irrigation were also delivered as part of the GAT-Belišće project, followed by the delivery for another eight similar projects within the international financing program.

In Sisak, in partnership with Siemens for the INA refinery, negotiations are currently underway with the CMC steelworks for the delivery of 17 large pumps of new design, which the newly established design team of Croatia pumpe Nova boasts about. Additionally, there is a long list of countries to which spare parts for pumps produced in Croatia pumpe over the past decades are sent.
In shipbuilding, contracts have been signed for the delivery of series of 42 pumps for two livestock carriers being built by the Pula Uljanik for the Italian client SIBA Ships. Finally, Kraljić and Babac add, Croatia pumpe Nova will participate from the beginning of April in the regular maintenance of the Krško Nuclear Power Plant, where for the first time in the history of NEK, the Karlovac pump manufacturer will install four pumps produced in Karlovac, instead of the previously mandatory installations of pumps and spare parts sourced from the USA. (Mladen Volarić)