Forgings, Flanges & Fittings
Forgings, Flanges & Fittings is an engineering business that specialises in the supply of specialist steel products for the oil & gas, mining and heavy engineering industries in Australia and internationally.
Need
While Forgings, Flanges & Fittings' bank, was supportive of its contract with Queensland Alumina (QAL) it required 100% cash security before it could provide the bank guarantee that Forgings, Flanges & Fittings needed to fulfil its contractual obligations.
Solution
We were able to provide Forgings, Flanges & Fittings' bank with an Export Working Capital Guarantee which enabled the business to meet demand in a very important market.
Forgings, Flanges & Fittings (FFF), established in 1998, is a family-owned Perth engineering business that specialises in the supply of specialist steel products for the oil & gas, mining and heavy engineering industries in Australia and internationally.
FFF secured an annual contract with Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) for the provision of 27,000 speciality tubes, which are used in heat exchangers by QAL to process alumina for export.
The tubing required under the contract is manufactured offshore in China, with quality control imposed by FFF, which has a chemical engineer and full time staff on site at the China facility to manage the production process.
While FFF’s bank, ANZ, was supportive of this contract, it required 100% cash security before it could provide the bank guarantee that FFF needed to fulfil its contractual obligations.
This would have tied up precious working capital, which FFF needs available to secure new contracts as they arise, and so FFF approached us for help.
At a time when SME credit is difficult to obtain, Export Finance Australia was able to see past bricks and mortar, and recognise the strength and potential of our business.
Tim Cornish
Sales Director, FFF
How we helped
We were able to provide FFF’s bank with an export working capital guarantee.
This allowed its bank to approve the funds FFF needed to meet the demand immediately, in what is a very important market.
FFF is now pursuing other international contract opportunities with similar offshore operations.