Oğuz Tekin, Dr Rolf Mayer and Uwe Schwanke
Dear readers,
For many countries around the globe, the 2015/2016 sugar year is already over. In Europe, the legal framework for the sugar industry is due to change from next year, after almost half a century. Quota management and minimum prices will be replaced by market-driven supply and demand. The European sugar sector will have to adjust to these changes in the remaining months of 2016.
But not only the European situation requires the players in the sugar industry to keep moving all the time. With changing sugar prices, climate change, and considerably lower yields in some regions, many market participants in Europe and elsewhere have to rethink their business models. This requires maximum flexibility from mechanical and plant engineering firms. BMA has continued to strengthen its international profile over the past months, to respond even more flexibly to customers' needs. We have set up new companies in France and Turkey, making no secret of our great commitment to these regions, and moving even closer to our customers. For an excellent overview of where BMA is engaged in business today, take a look at our brand new website, which has been online since December 2015.
In many other markets, BMA has further expanded its range of products and services. Russia's first VKT in Znamenka started up in autumn 2015, in time for the beet campaign. The Etihad refinery in Iraq was commissioned at the end of last year and reached the agreed nominal capacity six weeks earlier than planned. A highly successful ending to these two large-scale projects, which had lasted several years. And there are new challenges ahead! On the Nile, for instance, where BMA is involved in building a new beet sugar factory and refinery with an extraction tower that is in a league of its own.
In the cane sugar sector, diffusers from BMA have been gaining market shares. While one diffuser in Thailand was commissioned after just 15 months of construction, the other projects are still at the building stage. The true value of BMA's process expertise for cane-processing factories has been demonstrated by our engineering network, in a series of basic and detailed engineering studies.
One central pillar for the success of our projects around the globe is the close collaboration within the BMA Group. Every day, we manage to overcome barriers of language and culture between project participants. This has also been part of our day-to-day relationships with customers, suppliers and partners. And this quality of our relations, as we know them from the sugar industry, is what we would like to bring more and more to other areas of life outside business. That is part of BMA's commitment, today and for the future.
Wishing you an enjoyable read!