Taking into account market trends, TOM-FERR Zrt. is planning to set up an automotive pipe factory in Tata in the framework of this project in order to maintain growth and reduce raw material exposure. The aim of the project is to create a new pipe production hall with which the company would provide automotive calibrated pipes in Hungary as the only one in Hungary, eliminating the problems arising from products purchased from foreign suppliers. As the production of pipes is already included in the production process, it will be able to significantly reduce its dependence on external factors, thereby creating more flexible and efficient production. In order to achieve the above objectives, the construction of a new production hall of 4 200 m² (3 997 m² production hall and 203 m² office and service space and 2 crane tracks), the acquisition of new equipment leading to the technological development required for the production activity (two main handling bridge cranes with a load capacity of 5 tons and 20 tons, and the construction of a tape-slitter and roll-off mools and automatic packaging system for the production line for steel pipes) is also planned to be introduced for the new business line ISO 14001:2015 management and management certification standards. The market for automotive calibrated pipe and automotive processed pipe products produced by the new factory unit consists primarily of the domestic market and the markets of neighbouring countries within a maximum range of 1 000 km, mainly from Hungary to the west. The potential foreign markets are therefore Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. By increasing the capacity of the new factory unit, the company will provide the raw material to its own automotive processed pipe manufacturing business and, on the other hand, the manufactured products will be sold directly as automotive calibrated pipes to the automotive TIER-1-level suppliers. In the case of automotive processed pipes, the size of the customer base can be precisely determined on the basis of the company’s existing customer base, and 100 % of the 5-year calculated production capacity was already covered by customer framework agreements. In addition, in order to strengthen the company’s market share, it intends to include the production of calibration tubes as raw material for automotive processed pipes as part of the production process. The customer range of directly sold automotive calibrated pipes and the size of the market were determined on the basis of statistical data analysis and interviews with competing car parts manufacturers and automotive pipe traders. On this basis, the market for the planned maximum annual calibrated production capacity of 2245 tonnes of calibrated pipe for direct sales ranges from 16,000 to 22,000 tonnes only domestically, thus committing the planned capacities several times.
