Turkish delight as Concept Steels wins £5m order
A WOLVERHAMPTON steel company has secured a £5m contract with a Turkish customer to export alloys, exotic metals and components for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries to third markets such as Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Croatia.
The order for Concept Steels by Vastas was among a batch of contract wins announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who is leading a business delegation to Turkey to strengthen diplomatic and business ties.
Mr Clegg is being joined on the visit by Business Minister Michael Fallon and a business delegation of 18 CEOs and senior executives from companies including Arup, Mott McDonald, AECOM, Lloyds of London and Cella Energy. Together they will discuss possible new deals and business ventures with their Turkish counterparts potentially worth up to £0.5bn.
The Deputy Prime Minister will also hold a series of high level bilateral meetings with Turkish leaders including President Gul, Prime Minister Erdogan and Deputy Prime Minister Babacan.
During his visit, Mr Clegg will also announce that Turkish company HDM Steel Pipe is to open a £7m manufacturing facility in Cardiff, creating 38 jobs in the city with scope for further expansion in the future. The new jobs will provide employment for skilled operators, as well as administration, planning and logistics roles.
Also, Turkish hospital group Florence Nightingale is establishing its European headquarters in London, creating eight new jobs. The strength of the NHS brand and British universities helped secured this initial £100,000 investment.
In addition, project management and construction consulting services company Hill International is to open a new Turkey and Central Asia (the Caucasus) regional office in early November as part of its efforts to secure contracts worth up to £250m.
Mr Clegg said: “It’s fantastic to be announcing new jobs for the UK and such an impressive set of deals for British businesses.
“Turkey is Europe’s seventh largest economy and is one of the world’s largest markets. My main aim this week is to ensure that more UK firms can capitalise on the economic opportunities Turkey offers.
“We have an ambitious aim to double bilateral trade by 2015. It has increased by 40% since 2009 so we are making good progress towards the target, and this visit will bring us even closer.”
Last year Turkish imports of British goods and services rose by 20% and over 2,200 British companies have invested in Turkey, including high street names Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Vodafone, HSBC, and Laura Ashley.
The Deputy Prime Minister will also sign a memorandum of understanding with Europe Minister Bağış, which will agree a project to train 350 lawyers on the judicial standards required by the EU.
