Export in a time of crisis: why internationalisation should be boosted?
Stresses in global supply chains and rising prices across the board are driving companies to prioritise their investments and rationalise their imports. For export-oriented companies like Gurelan, the time has come to move forward and become the preferential alternative for major international industrial players seeking to make the most of their imports, while prioritising quality, service and availability above all.
Due to rising energy, commodities and fuel prices, together with stress in supply chains and shipping worldwide, the whole industry needs to rethink how to prioritise its investments. In addition, larger global companies are demanding increased local presence, and now more than ever, customers abroad are requesting better service at all stages of the process.
From a purely economic perspective, businesses that aim to localise and/or regionalise manufacturing, and that currently have supply chains highly interconnected with China, must consider how feasible it is to decouple from the ‘world’s largest factory’. Highly specialised companies with strong expertise and a long tradition such as Gurelan offer an attractive alternative for key sectors requiring high quality parts and competitive prices, like the automotive or electrical appliance industry.
Major industrial players are looking for export alternatives
In this context, and especially in the metal casting industry and the manufacture of Zamak and Magnesium parts, companies have to compete with other markets, such as Asia, where environmental management and occupational risk requirements are lower. This scenario is compounded by difficulties when it comes to hiring specialists and ensuring investments in new technology in order to improve competitiveness.
Thanks to technical expertise and a high degree of automation, Gurelan is a small but very competitive company in Europe. Dealing with such different problems has allowed Gurelan to acquire the required know-how to meet 100% of the most demanding customers´ requests, standing now as a privileged alternative for international industrial players seeking to make the most of their imports, with quality, service and availability at the forefront.
Why internationalisation needs to be taken further?
However, the forces driving globalisation are still at work: technological advances leading to global interdependence make internationalisation and the opening up of new markets necessary, especially for highly specialised industrial companies such as Gurelan.
Internationalisation involves being subject to the discipline of international markets, which encourages efficiency gains. It means a shift from competing with local companies to worldwide competitors. For an export-oriented industrial company, going abroad means to improve operations, innovate in management procedures, personalise customer service...
In particular, digitalisation is reducing costs and accelerating transactions, which is especially relevant for smaller firms to more easily overcome the low competitive costs associated with internationalisation.
Gurelan: an open market company for its international customers
The two largest economies, the US and China, demand high quality and guaranteed products for sectors such as aeronautics, electronics and the automotive industry. Accordingly, Gurelan is part of the FUNDIGEX USA project, an export business association specifically created to show that Spanish foundries are more than capable of satisfying the high quality requirements and service expectations of the North American market.
Gurelan is a company dedicated to international activity, with practically 80% of the production going directly or indirectly to export, mainly to Europe. The data are irrefutable. Companies that operate abroad are more productive, invest more in innovation, offer better working conditions and are more resilient to the uncertainties of the economic cycle.