China Gerui announces increase in international customers
China Gerui Advanced Materials Group Limited a leading high precision,
cold rolled steel producer in China announced that it has made steady
progress in marketing internationally with three customers placing
regular commercial orders for its high-end and narrow-strip steel. Since
the international marketing initiatives(seamless steel pipe tube) began
in June 2012, the Company has captured three new customers, with two
customers in India and one customer located in Turkey. Additionally,
three potential customers are currently engaged in trials with China
Gerui's specialized steel products in three other countries.
Two of the three initial customers began testing China Gerui's products
before committing to becoming ongoing, regular customers. The current
three customers are purchasing both wide- and narrow strip
high-precision, chromium-plated, cold-rolled strip steel. The initial
application is for insulating wire and cable manufactured for the
(seamless steel pipe tube)telecommunications industry with an average
thickness of 0.15 mm and with widths ranging from 610 mm to 810 mm.
Based on current order levels, it is estimated that the annual order
requirements will total approximately 3,000 tons of this higher-margin
product.
India and Turkey are both viewed as growth markets for steel. The World
Steel Association indicated steel demand is expected to increase in
India by 5.9% to 75.8 million tons in 2013 following 2.5% growth in
2012. Further, the (seamless steel pipe tube)Turkish Iron & Steel
Producers Association stated steel consumption in Turkey is expected to
rise 5.3% to 30 million tons in 2013 compared with 2012. The management
of China Gerui believes its specialized, high-quality steel will meet
limited competition and achieve a foothold in both markets.
"With a focus on balancing our business mix from the current heavy
concentration in the Chinese market, and to build our presence in
higher-growth markets, our strategic shift to enhance our exports is
expected to broaden our customer base, strengthen our capacity
utilization, and increase our return on investment to build value for
our shareholders. We anticipate that exports will be the fastest growth
driver of sales over the next few years with a long-term goal of exports
potentially matching domestic sales levels over time," (seamless steel
pipe tube)commented Mr. Mingwang Lu, Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of China Gerui. "Exports represent another opportunity to
leverage our products' value-to-price ratio both in emerging and
well-developed markets as we increase our customers' profitability and
competitiveness. Emerging markets are ideal targets for China Gerui as
they possess limited domestic production of high-precision, cold rolled
products requiring imported products, and our high-quality, diversified
product line offers more comprehensive solutions. On the other hand,
well-developed markets present the opportunity to quickly take advantage
of our lower cost and pricing structure to generate relatively larger
orders and improve our customers' success."
Two potential customers, one in Thailand and one in Armenia, have placed
orders to test the Company's high precision, chromium-plated,
cold-rolled strip steel for application in the local telecommunications
industry. Another U.S.-based potential(seamless steel pipe tube)
customer is intensively testing the Company's products for application
in the large food and beverage packaging industry, another higher-margin
segment for China Gerui that could facilitate higher volume demand.
Sales terms to new export customers are consistent with the current
domestic model whereby an initial cash deposit is pre-paid when an
order(seamless steel pipe tube) is signed and the outstanding receivable
is backed with a letter of credit upon product delivery.
Mr Lu continued that "In addition, we have been adding new products such
as laminated steel and chromium-plated steel, to our product portfolio
to provide broader solutions to meet more of our customers' requirements
and improve our(seamless steel pipe tube) competitiveness in both the
domestic and foreign markets. We are also adding personnel and support
resources to build our export marketing programs into a powerful brand
building and sales tool. We believe these initiatives will enable China
Gerui to evolve into a world-class, international metals processor
committed to building shareholder value."