Who is interested in recycled metal or in other words, what are your customers?
Our main customers are steel industry, producers of metal itmes and other plants. We are mainly export oriented and sale to countries like India, China, The Netherlands, Italy and other countries. We work not only with producers but also with dealers that forward the materials to other parts of the world. We have customers in Greece, but the foreign market offers better prices, greater demand and, in general our strategy is export oriented.
Don’t resale and transportation costs increase the end price of the output, whatever it is?
Everything is directly related to the volume of demand at a specific time. Of course, there is certain increase in costs, but the price depends on the material the customer wants, the quantity and the quality.
It is important to understand that the role of recycling has increased significantly in recent years. Nothing is thrown as garbage and everything can be processed and turned into new raw material. There are new technologies that give new life to old or unwanted materials.
Could you tell us more about the company ARCHIMEDES NEONAKIS S.A. and is there competition in your market?
The company has existed for almost forty years and its main activity in the beginning was to collect scrap iron. Today we are dealing with recycling and trading of metals. We have a foundry to produce aluminum which we sell too and we also produce scrap for export.
There have been certain growth in recycling in the last three or four years and this is mainly due to the fact that the Greeks had no culture of raw materials processing before. I can definitely say that our sector has started to grow significantly after 2006 and my forecasts are that companies like ours will enjoy positive growth in the next two or three years too.
There is competition and I can safely say that there are many good companies in Greece that are valuable competitors in our sector and provide quality raw materials. Each company tries to expand its activities and this raises the quality of the offered products and services.
The crisis has affected everyone in Greece. How has it affect your company?
The crisis has really affected everyone, there is not a Greek company that is not affected by this situation. It created employment issues, reduced production, although if we have to be honest, there is no significant production in Greece. There were difficulties abroad too but the situation is getting better.
We also have tightened the belts in our company and reduced costs where possible. However, we are adamant that we will not reduce jobs or salaries. ARCHIMEDES NEONAKIS S.A. currently employs about 110 people who are extremely important to us, so there will be no redundancies. There are other ways to optimize the operation of a company and we will take advantage of them when necessary.
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