How has the current slowdown impacted its European Subsidiary?
ISMT acquired Structo Hydraulics AB, a Swedish company in June 07. Structo Hydraulics AB is one of the largest manufacturer of Cold Drawn and Skived and Roller burnished tubes and components manufacturer for the Hydraulic Cylinder industry in Europe. Structo buys hot-finished tubes from ISMT and further cold draws them and also Skives and Roller burnishes them so that they are ready for the hydraulic cylinder market. The slowdown in the European markets has had a significant impact on sales at Structo and our efforts are now directed at cutting costs and improving utilization at Structo. We expect sales to start recovering towards the second half of this year there are already some signs that this is beginning to happen. Our longer term objective of using Structo to establish ourselves as the leading player in the hydraulic cylinder tube market in Europe and Asia remains unchanged.
