The metallurgic firm Stomana Industry, part of the Greek Viohalco concern, has bought the Sviloza port in Svishtov, together with the German firm M Preymesser, Dnevnik daily reported on January 6 2010.

The port, which currently bears the name Port Vidin Nord, will remain as an independent entity within the group, it is said. A year ago, both companies tried to obtain the Vidin port on a concession but the attempt failed.

"We needed to buy our own port in order to have some independence when it comes to processing our freight," Anton Petrov, regional manager for Viohalco, was quoted as saying by Dnevnik.

Stomana Industry is contemplating on expanding the port, hence it purchased an additional 50 000 sq m parcel adjacent to the facility.

The company did not reveal the price it paid for the port, but claimed that the deal was worth the equivalent of "30 years of concession".

"The port is small but it has the required infrastructure. We are poised to invest an additional seven to 10 million euro to make it suitable for our needs," Petrov said.

Viohalco is the holding company of the largest Greek metals processing group, founded in 1937, and has been listed on the Athens Stock Exchange since 1947.

It has production facilities in Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and the United Kingdom, specialising in the manufacture of copper (Halcor S.A. and Sofia Med S.A.), aluminium (Elval S.A., Etem S.A. and Bridgnorth Aluminium Ltd), steel products (Sidenor S.A., Stomana Industry S.A. and Corinth Pipeworks S.A.) as well as cables (Hellenic Cables S.A. and Icme Ecab S.A.)

According to the company's website, it generates an annual turnover of more than three billion euro.