Source: Seznam Zprávy Date: 07.08.2024 Author: Markéta Bidrmanová
Two companies from Jaroslav Strnad's concern will also supply the new Dukovany units for the South Koreans. Trebic companies MICo and Chemcomex have agreed with KHNP to supply accessories for the turbine, Michal Balko confirmed.
The outcome of the tender for the construction of new nuclear units was eagerly awaited by the Czech industry. Tens of billions are at stake for supplies for the new reactors. The winner of the tender, the Korean KHNP, has already preselected 200 Czech companies with which it could cooperate in the construction of the nuclear units. Two of Jaroslav Strnad's companies will also get their hands on money from Dukovany. The Trebic company MICo has been on the market for more than 30 years, having emerged from the service organisation of the "old" Dukovany units. For the new ones it is to supply turbine accessories from the workshop of the Pilsen-based company Doosan Škoda Power.
MICo can produce steam condensers, low- and high-pressure regenerative heaters and pressure vessels for the new units. Sister company Chemcomex, also part of Strnad's industrial holding CE Industries, can assemble the equipment and connect it through piping systems. The volume of potential contracts is still only in outline. "We can derive from the size of the blocks. But since the turbine island should cost units of billions of crowns, we think that our deliveries over the years should be in the higher hundreds of millions of crowns," estimates Michal Balko, sales director at both MICo and Chemcomex.
We won't ship it all in one piece
When the state signs the contract with KHNP, which is expected to be in 2025, contracts with subcontractors will only start to be concluded. So far, the two Strnad companies have only cooperation agreements with the Koreans. "These are non-binding documents, so there is no question of specific commitments yet," says Balko.
In addition to Doosan Škoda Power, MICo's top three clients include Siemens and ČEZ, to which the company supplies Temelín and Dukovany and provides maintenance. Technicians and engineers from the Trebic region have already produced hundreds of condensers that can cool Dukovany. For Počerady, they made one of the largest condensers in Europe with a surface area of over 21,000 square metres and a weight of over 480 tonnes. The condenser for Dukovany will be similarly massive. "It will be similarly large. These are devices that cannot even be transported in one piece, so they will be manufactured in modules and then transported to the installation site and assembled there," Balko says.
Transporting oversized objects is expensive. "We have production halls within sight of the plant, one in Hrotovice, one in Kramolin, both within 15 kilometres of the Dukovany plant, which gives us a big advantage," says Michal Balko.
More orders across Europe?
MICo has delivered to Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria and Finland. A major one was the supply of tanks for the UK's Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. Strnad's companies will also bid for contracts there. EDF also has a contract for six more units in France.
The company is also waiting for an opportunity in Ukraine, where it has supplied the Rovenskaya plant and the South Ukraine nuclear power station. "Negotiations are ongoing, in fact they never ended. We have references from deliveries to nuclear power plants in Ukraine. The investment has cooled down a bit now, but as soon as it comes back, we will be at it again," Balko plans.
The next few years, however, will belong to preparations for the Dukovany project. Excavation work at Dukovany is due to start in 2029 and production of a condenser of the parameters mentioned above will take a year to a year and a half. "Nuclear power plants are subject to special certification and we are just starting to work on that."
The next challenge will be to find enough qualified people. "CEZ has already earmarked a new entity for construction, so it will suck up people in the region, and I expect a big struggle for employees among companies," Balko suspects.
We will be pulling people over
MICo and Chemcomex each employ about 140 people. "We would like to double the number of employees. We are solving the same problem as everyone else. The labour market in the Czech Republic is overheated. We will have to educate experts, so we plan to establish cooperation with secondary schools and universities," says the manager.
Last year, Chemcomex managed a turnover of just under CZK 700 million, while MICo managed CZK 170 million, the commercial director of both companies said in an interview. Before Strnad senior joined, the company was insolvent. "MICo plans to get over 200 million this year. When construction starts, I expect that number to grow. The ambitious outlook is that MICo could easily be at half a billion in turnover and Chemcomex at one billion, so we will see what we can agree with the Korean customer," Balko plans.
EBITDA, i.e. earnings before taxes and depreciation and amortization, totalled over CZK 50 million in both companies last year.