Kerametal, Bratislava

KERAMETAL was founded in 1970 as a company for foreign trade. The founding shareholders were significant state enterprises from the fields of black metallurgy and metallurgy of non-ferrous metals, the magnesite, aluminium, and engineering industries, and banks. From the beginning, the company concentrated on the purchase and sale of raw materials and semi-finished goods, mainly for the requirements of metallurgy and engineering; in a number of commodities. The company was the dominant supplier of Czechoslovak metallurgical and engineering companies. Throughout its existence, the company has managed a wide network of trade and economic relations with both domestic and foreign entities. The process of transformation and privatisation introduced after 1990 did not influence KERAMETAL. The structure of owners was partially altered and most of them were transformed and privatizated. Fundamental changes in trade and economic conditions, production restructuring of customers and suppliers, were the reason, that the economic period after 1990 was very complex for the company. The concentrated efforts of the KERAMETAL within the newly created conditions not only kept up them, but were also always a step ahead of the competition. This is only possible through maintaining fundamental competitive advantages, such as a well-developed network of partner relations, qualified human potential, and the existence of ones own manufacturing and technical background. These basic attributes have been primarily developed over the preceding period.