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ABSTRACT
Metallurgical industry is well-known for its high potential of pollution, but is also a very important branch for the every country's industry. The articol tends to reflect the particularities of this industrial branch, with the purpose of defining the perspectives and the identification of major trends. In order to evaluate the sector, multiple indicators are analized, indicators that refere to the last decade, positioning the metallurgical industry in comparison with the other economic branches in Romania. The metallurgical industry takes benefit of the available qualified labour force, but depends on the import of raw materials and on the production capacities that are obsolete and require high energy consumption.
KEYWORDS: metallurgical industry, labour productivity, industrial productivity, Romania
INTRODUCTION
The metallurgical industry in Romania is a traditional activity, that needs to surpass major disadvantages such as high energy consumption and high import of raw material.
In Romania, the metal processing is known since old times, the iron processing being mentioned since Iron Age, in Teliucu Inferior, Cugir and Baia de Fier.The first mine dates since 1790, being digged in Staedorf (Banat) and the first ovens for iron ore processing, were functioning in Bocsa and Oravita (Bran and colab., 1999).
Romania posesses two categories of metallurgical units: with furnace and without furnace. The biggest metallurgical companies were in Resita, Hunedoara, Galati and Calarasi, out of which the complete production cycle was realised only in the first two. Other important centres for cast iron production were in Calan and Vlahita, while for the steel and wire production the centres were in Târgoviste, Bucuresti, Braila, Câmpia Turzii, Beclean, Zimnicea, Iasi, Roman etc. (Cândea and colab., 2006).
At the same time, the non-ferrous metallurgy was well-represented in Romania, taking into consideration the extraction and processing of a high number of non-ferrous metals such as: copper, lead, zinc, aluminium, mercury, bismut, stibium, antimonium, cobalt and uranium. Generally, these metals are found in complex ores in Gutâi-Oas Mountains, Rodna Mountains and Metaliferi Mountains. The most important centres for processing non-ferrous metals are in Baia Mare, Copsa Mica, Zlatna. Bauxite minings are in Padurea Craiului Mountains, Bihor Mountains, Poiana Rusca. The processing and washing of bauxite is realized in Dobresti and Chistag, and the transformation in alumine in Oradea and Tulcea. In...