A local, family-owned auto parts company has just completed a 1-year investment5 million dollars in a new radiator production line in the southern part of the province. This is the Cromosol group, a company that has its business distributed in the import and sale of car spare parts, with an industrial leg dating back to 1942, when it started with import substitution. Now a partner from Taiwan has been added to incorporate cutting-edge technology in the production of more modern radiators, adapted to compressed engines.
Cromosol auto parts It started in 1936 as the first auto parts distributor in Argentina. But to their main activity, commercial and logistics, they added a chrome plating plant and, starting from 1942, in the midst of the Second War, a plant where they dedicated themselves to the production of rear-view mirrors (the first of local origin), bumpers and moldings.
“We specialize in the segment crashing parts, which are the ones that break in the event of an accident and are sold on the spare parts market,” explains Martín Ramírez, general director of the company, who took over the company in the 1950s Jorge Ruizfather of the current owner, Diego Ruizwho started the business in 1985 and took over its management in 1992.
Today the company has a distribution center in Tortuguitas that occupies four blocks, with 250 employees and branches in two provinces and in the Conurbano. It also has its manufacturing side, with a plant in Avellaneda, where it produces some 3,000 radiators “expanded” by month and other types of pieces. This type of classic radiator It reaches popular models like the discontinued Gol Trend. Since then, Ramírez explained, “factories are already using radiators Reinforcedwhich are smaller and suitable for compressed engines”.
The new investment has lasted for more than a year and began with the purchase of a property on the Ezeiza-Cañuelas road in the municipality of Spegazzini (in front of the Sinteplast factory), where it has set up two production sheds and is now installing an oven for production of radiators. The team, of German origin, requested 10% of the investment: the rest was allocated to the purchase of the land (millions of dollars), the two production warehouses (6,250,000 dollars), equipment, working capital and provisions for moving machinery. the plant ($4.5 million).
The announcement of the new investment on Thursday took place as part of the presentation of the Automechanicsthe auto parts fair which will be held next week on the premises of The Rural, between April 10th and 13th.
The presentation took place with a lunch led by the representative of Messe Frankfurt Argentina (organizer of the exhibition), Fernando Gorbaranand the head of the Association of Auto Parts Manufacturers (AFAC), Norberto Taranto. And it gave rise to a public dialogue between the well-known entrepreneur, producer of engine gaskets that bear his name as a brand, and Ramírez, director of Cromosol.
Tarantino: “In recent years we have had to juggle between being able to bring supplies and convince our external suppliers to continue selling to us. I imagine that for you, being able to buy the oven from the Germans was not easy, today you have to pay 70% in advance and the balance against disembarkation in port”.
Ramirez: “We sold some Argentine dollar-denominated bonds and with these we completed the prepayment to order the equipment.”
They started manufacturing radiators in 2010, through their subsidiary BBA, with components imported from China, which were stopped by an anti-dumping measure in 2016. Instead of closing production, they looked for a partner to increase the nationalization of those pieces in Avellaneda: they closed an agreement with the company Terms and conditions, from Taiwan, which joined as a technology provider. With those same partners they are now tackling the project for the creation of “reinforced” radiators.
“We will get out of the production rhythm from 3,000 pieces per month to 30,000. We have the advantage of having our own logistics, which we use to distribute millions of car parts per year. And these parts can reach the customer in a few days, unlike Asian competitors which can take months,” the executive added.
Source: Clarin
