UNEX Slovakia starts production in Prakovce
Uničov, August 4, 2008
UNEX Slovakia a.s., a subsidiary company of the metallurgical and engineering complex UNEX, has begun production in the foundry in the premises of Prakovská oceliarska spoločnosť (POS) Co. in Prakovce (south-eastern part of the Spiš region, approximately 45 km from Košice). After approximately six months of cooperation - and due to the untenable financial situation of POS - UNEX took over the necessary assets of the company and offers work to present and previous POS workers to secure continuous production and satisfy increasing demands of its customers. The UNEX group currently employs about 3,000 people in the Czech Republic and 500 in Slovakia. This year UNEX expects consolidated sales of about 5 billion Czech crowns.
At the same time, UNEX Slovakia started several capital projects in the POS premises which should secure profitability and compatibility. About 50 million Czech crowns will be invested in the operation of the melting shop (melting units), moulding shop (moulding lines), and casting completion (sizing process, heat treatment). Thanks to that, the Prakovce plant should employ about 250 to 300 workers in two years and reach production of 0.5 billion Slovak crowns.
Production in Prakovce - utilizing technological possibilities and long-term experience of technicians and the staff - will be concentrated on high quality manganese (Hadfield) steel suitable for castings under both cyclic and dynamic stress, abrasion resistant as well as the whole range of nodular and grey iron. Weight of castings ranges between 1 and 120 kg. The main customers of the castings are companies in the field of power generation, transport (lorries, trucks, railway carriages and machinery), heavy and general engineering, agricultural machinery, repair works, military and building industries. There are more than 140 of them.
Specific products manufactured by UNEX Slovakia in Prakovce are, e. g., the following:
- components for mills and crushers - armours, milling plates,
- ploughs, cutting edges, knives, belts,
- parts for railway transport automation,
- components for machinery for maintenance of railways, sole-plates,
- earth machinery parts - teeth,
- components of escalators, mechanisms,
- furniture components, decorative parts, grills,
- components for sawing machines, machine tools, hoisting devices, piping and pumps.
