Ever since its foundation in 1982, our Publishing House has always felt that the duty of a technical Editor is to acquire an in-depth knowledge not only of the market, but also of its structure and size, as well as the products it offers the end users. For this reason, we have been carrying out an intense activity in market research with the purpose of expanding our database, which provides the addresses for our mailing list.
This database is stored in the www.datalignum.com worldwide search engine, run by the English companyDatalignum.com Ltd , and today contains 105,520 company names.
The names of the Rumanian companies, for examples, have been extrapolated from the www.datalignum.com. search engine.
The reader can gain access to the database by requesting the necessary password and subsequently, if interested, take out a subscription. We have already studied and published reports on the following European countries: Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia.

Economic Data
Romania has been an independent Republic since 1859  with the unification of Moldavia and  Walachia, and a People’s Republic since 1948. From 1965 the country was ruled by Nicolae Ceausescu, the communist dictator, who was removed from power with the uprising of 25th December 1989. Since then, the President of the Republic, who is now Ion Iliescu, is elected by the people and remains in office for 4 years, like the parliament which consists of 346 members in the House of Commons and 143 in the Upper Chamber.  Romania spreads over a territory of 237,800 sq. km. With a population of 22 million inhabitants.
Here follow some relevant economic data relating to the year 1999  :
- Density of population: 95 inhabitants/sq. km. Annual growth registers a negative trend equal to 0.3%. Birth rate: 10.4 per thousand, death rate : 11.8 per thousand. Average life expectancy : men
- 69 years, women 73 years. Urban population : 56.2%.
- Capital City : Bucharest, with 2,100,000 inhabitants.
- Currency: the Leu,  1 Euro =  35,000 Lei.
- Gross National Product (GNP) 30,600 million USD. GNP per inhabitant : 1,400 USD.
- Inflation rate :  22.2%.
- Unemployment : 11.6%.
- Ethnic groups : Rumanians 89.5%, Magyars 7.1%, Gypsies 1.7%, Germans 0.5%, Ukrainians
0.3%, Russians 0.2%, Turks 0.1%.
- Economic situation : Poverty is widespread and affects about half of the population. Low labour costs attract many foreign small and medium size companies, particularly from Germany and Italy.  

FORESTRY
The use of the territory is divided as follows: woods 28% - grassland 21% - arable 41% and wasteland 10%.
The forest surface represents the 26.6% of the total and is equal to 6,315,780 hectares on which the following types of trees are planted: resinous (1,880,901 ha = 30%) and hardwood  (4,437,879 ha = 70%).
After the fall of the Ceausescu regime, a democratisation and economic opening process to the free market began in Romania,  but the influence of the politic power is still today very strong on industrial decisions and bureaucracy must be defeated.

Asfor
In 1994, on the initiative of 45 land owners, the Asociatia Forestierilor din Romania (ASFOR) was founded. This is the association of the forestry industry and has the purpose of promoting the timber business and the economic activities connected to it. The President in office is Mr. Ioan Sbera.
We went to Bucharest at the ASFOR offices and talked to the Director, Mr. Corneliu Colev, who said : ”In Romania the forestry industry is managed by two Bodies.
The first is the Ministry of Agricultural and Industrial Forestry, whose task is to protect the forests and provide forestry management strategies. At the moment, the Government policy is to give back the woods to the original owners, up to a 60% quota, leaving the remaining 40% to the State.
The second Body is the Industrial Resources Board whose duty is to handle relations with the companies in charge of deforestation. In Romania there are about 2,000 such companies and the only 2 State owned are soon to be privatised.
Forestry management by the two Bodies, unfortunately,  is characterised long bureaucratic and coordination time, as well as a lack of a united policy.
There are two types of deforestation methods: standing tree or trunk at the edges of the woods. Subsequently, the selection of the trunks is carried out and these are destined, according to their quality and their diameter size, to their various applications. In some areas of Romania, deforestation is a complicated and costly operation, due to the distance of the woods from the roads. However, this is partly compensated by low labour costs.
The above difficulty will be overcome with the employment of special multi-functional and self-propelled machinery which can process the logs on situ and handle their transportation.
The forestry and timber industry employs around 80,000 people. The State has placed a quota on the total yearly volume of deforestation equal to a maximum of 15 million cu. m.  Of the total quantity of timber, about 9.6  million/cu. m. are absorbed  by the industry (4.7 million/cu. m. resinous wood and 4.9 million/cu. m. hardwood) and the remaining is used for rural applications. Statistics show that in the year 2000 12.3 million cu. m. of timber were harvested, of which 5 million/cu. m. were resinous wood and 7.3 million/cu. m. hardwood.
There are 350 sawmills, mainly small enterprises, with a processing capacity varying from 4,000 cu. m./year to a maximum of 25.000 cu. m./year.”

Institute of Wood
An important role for the development of the industrial activity is held by the Institute for Wood with headquarters in Bucharest. During our visit, we were received by the Managing Director and other Executives. The MD, Mr. Ioan Ciurea, stated :”Our institute was set up in 1933 and has the purpose of supporting the industries of the sector with research (we have 12 laboratories), design and wood processing activities. The staff consists of 335 people with branches in Brasov, Pitesti, Timisoara, Oradea, Roman, Craiova, Targu Mures and Suceava. The present situation of the furniture market in Romania is not good, especially for modern furniture, as good quality furniture can be important from Italy at a very interesting price. The Rumanian traditional production steers towards classic furniture in solid wood. From Italy, we import many machines for the processing of wood.”

Arboria Manufacturing Srl
This company is part of an important industrial Group with a vertically integrated system. The company owns woods, carries out the cutting of the trees, produces logs and boards, manufactures wood products and components for furniture, as well as chairs and furniture. In Bucharest we met the President, Mr. Adrian Grigoriu, who showed us the factory, where the timber is dried and hardboard for export is produced. By coincidence, we also met the Italian supplier of Secal drying plants, Mr. Domenico Musumeci.
In addition to serving the domestic market, the Arboria company exports about 90% of total production.

To have the list of romanian companies (industry and retail), please ask for the password to datalignum@datalignum.com