Eng. Iliya Keleshev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Branch Chamber - Machine Building, in the program "Business Start" on Bloomberg TV
Export-oriented Bulgarian machine-building companies are currently uncompetitive on the international market due to high prices of electricity and raw materials. The growth of the machine production index in Bulgaria above pre-pandemic levels is due to higher revenues due to the increase in electricity and metals. This comment on the air of Bloomberg TV Bulgaria, in the show "Business Start" was made by Eng. Iliya Keleshev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Branch Chamber - Machine Building.
He said contractors from other countries did not accept higher-priced bids to cover several times higher electricity and more expensive metals.
According to him, most of the companies have limited their activities, and some are threatened with the suspension of production similar to "Arsenal" - Kazanlak.
As for the government's compensation for electricity for business, Keleshev said it was "hasty" and made "without a thorough analysis of the state of energy and opportunities". The compensations of BGN 110/Mwh for October and November 2021 have benefited the companies that have supplied energy on long-term contracts and at a lower price, compared to those that are supplied to the Day Ahead segment.
The fastest growing segment in the industry are companies operating in the hydraulic sector. According to Keleshev, there are few but well-functioning companies in the metal cutting machine sector that can compete on world markets.
He explained that the electric and forklift sector has to import almost all its raw materials and parts from abroad, which makes it uncompetitive. Despite new investments in the production of cars and car parts, Bulgaria lags behind in the sector compared to neighboring countries such as Serbia, Romania and Turkey.
"Politicians are proud that many foreign investors are entering Bulgaria and that we are almost becoming a leading country and we are able to immediately start producing finished products. This is far from the case," Keleshev said.
He announced that since the beginning of the 90s of the last century in Bulgaria machine-building enterprises have been constantly closed and this trend continues to this day. "Politicians are talking about progress in recent years, but nothing compared to the late 1980s, when more than 450,000 people were employed in mechanical engineering," Keleshev recalled, adding that today there are more factories because of micro-firms and the division of more large enterprises, but production has fallen dozens of times.
