RAFAMET may see success on US soil

Despite mounting efforts to inject value into the slowly growing economy via military offset agreements, some local companies - which often miss the publicity radar - have managed to forge lucrative deals with foreign companies.

Take RAFAMET, for instance, a partially state-owned advanced machine tools producer, which re-cently signed an agreement to sell a $500,000 milling machine to a US-based company specializing in airplane, fighter jet, satellite and jet engine components.

Emanuel Longin Wons, RAFA-MET president, explains that the US is a substantial part of the business strategy for the company, which reckons that exports make up as much as 80 percent of its revenue.

He explains that, in the current economic environment, the company - which produces technologically advanced wheel lathes, vertical lather and milling machines, among other devices - plans to increase its business in the US, especially with a new line of products.

That strategy has nothing to do with the highly publicized offset agreements, in which the government holds elevated economic promise.

Such a move, however, would not represent any marked change for the company, because it has conducted business in the US for years. Sales director Maciej Michalik estimates that since the 1970s it has sold roughly 100 machines to US companies.

This most recent deal, which RAFAMET officially released last Friday, piqued the interest of Janusz Luks, the director for the corporate council for offset programs at the Industrial Development Agency (ARP), which owns 46 percent of the company.

Though he was well aware of RAFAMET's actions, he said that recent deals signed reflect the competitiveness of Polish companies abroad - even without the mandated helping hand of the offset programs.

RAFAMET's Wons says that he expects that the US will continue to be the company's growing partner.

"We are looking to sell (the US) modern equipment and very sophisticated machines," he says.

In reaction to this particular deal, the ARP's Luks, fresh from inspecting complicated offset contracts, considers that there are probably more Polish companies that are following in RAFAMET's footsteps. The Polish government directly holds 9.47 percent of RAFAMET.

The ARP and RAFAMET did not comment on whether this deal could be included as a part of the offset projects in the future.

By Timothy Sifert