A hundred Basque companies take an interest in business in Turkey and Africa

19 April 2012

The Department of Industry, through SPRI, held a meeting attended by 135 companies in Bilbao this week, once again proving the growing interest in international expansion. 68 companies and 80 people took part in last Tuesday’s meeting “The Steel Industry: Business Opportunities on the Turkish Market” A further 25 companies and 35 people attended today’s conference “The African Development Bank’s International Energy and Environment Tenders”

Spri, 19/04/2012

A hundred Basque firms attended two conferences held this week by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Trade and Tourism, through SPRI (Society for Competitive Transformation), a clear indication of the Basque business community’s growing interest in international expansion. 68 companies and 80 people took part in the meeting “The Steel Industry: Business Opportunities on the Turkish Market”, held last Tuesday, and another 25 companies and 35 people attended today’s conference “The African Development Bank’s International Energy and Environment Tenders”, both held at SPRI’s headquarters.

The event gave 68 Basque steel enterprises the chance to find out about the advantages of the Turkish market in this sector. Another objective of the event, which coincides with the fact that the Basque President Patxi López will be leading an institutional trip to Turkey next October, is to present the Basque offering to 3 major Turkish steel companies – Erdemir Group, Colakoglu Metalurji and Idc Steel – and for the Basque firms to find out first-hand about the steel producers’ market potential in this country and the three firms’ forthcoming expansion projects, and to place them in direct contact with the chief executives of these leading-edge companies. Each of the Turkish enterprises has held an average of 25 meetings with Basque companies interested in selling equipment.

Turkey is a market of great interest for the Basque firms, with a population of over 70 million people and ranking as the world’s 11th largest exporter (4th for non-European companies) in 2011. Steel is one of the industries with the greatest future potential, shown by the fact that Turkey came 7th in the world ranking of liquid steel producers in 2011, and the 14.4% increase in its production by January this year with respect to the same period in 2011.

Also, 25 energy and environment companies attended the conference “The African Development Bank’s International Energy and Environment Tenders”. Basque exports to Africa are constantly growing and accounted for 6% of the total for Spain in 2011, a figure similar to that of Latin America, Asia or North America.

SPRI provides services to Basque companies through its consultants, covering all the Mediterranean African countries, Angola and Mozambique, South Africa and neighbouring states, together with the sub-Saharan countries, through a group of consultants in this case. 11% of the Basque business internationalisation projects managed by SPRI correspond to Africa.

The African Development Bank is an international institution promoting the development of the African countries through projects for infrastructures, governance, higher education and the private sector. Over the last few years it has achieved a business volume of around 5,000 million euros a year, and this figure is expected to rise, after the Bank tripled its share capital in 2010. It is generating numerous business opportunities in a continent with a huge future potential. Also, working in conjunction with this type of institutions reduces certain risks for the entrepreneurs.