Semperit expands investment in European hose plant

Vienna – The Semperit Group has announced that it has set aside a capital expenditure fund of €75 million for 2015, of which approximately €50 million would be in growth investments in the year 2015.

In a statement released on 13 April, the Austrian speciality rubber parts producer also announced that it was investing nearly €15 million to further expand its hose production at the Semperflex facility in Odry, Czech Republic.

The company said that the Odry investment programme would increase production capacities of industrial hoses by about 40 percent by the second quarter of 2016, but did not give further details on planned production figures.

“We succeeded in significantly increasing sales volumes in recent years and gained additional market shares in spite of the weak economy”, said CEO Thomas Fahnemann.

“The hydraulic hose capacities put into operation in January 2015 are already well utilised. We are further expanding production in Odry in order to continue on our growth path and satisfy the strong demand for industrial hoses”.

Semperit expects to increase its capacity for mandrel built industrial hoses – utilised mainly by the construction, oil and transport industries – by more than half.

Also production capacity for extruded long length industrial hoses will be raised by about one-third at the turn of the year 2015/16.

Sepmperit did not give figures for raised or current capacities.

In 2014 Semperit invested more than €10 million to expand hydraulic hose production in Odry.

“As a result the production capacity… climbed by about 30%. These additional capacities have already been in operation since January 2015, and are already well booked with customer orders,” said the company.

Against the backdrop of the current challenging business environment, medium to long-term demand for hoses is expected to be positive, noted Sepmerit.

The Austrian firm expects that demand will be driven by long-term global growth in the mechanical engineering and construction industries as well as in mining.

“In particular, emerging markets catching up with developed countries and infrastructure expansion will ensure ongoing demand for hydraulic and industrial hoses integrated in to construction and agricultural machinery,” it concluded.