Foundry Ecocer Enhances its Team and Looks to New International Markets

Anthony Tropeano is the new strategic advisor of the Maurizio Sala Group.

by Mario Conserva

Anthony Tropeano is a leading name in the world of metals and in particular of aluminium, a total of 38 years of activity; educated at Jersey City State College and Fairleigh Dickinson University, where he received his MBA, he was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Italimpianti of America, Inc. – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then from 1994 he joined FATA where he held senior positions up to the highest level of Chief Executive Officer in 2016. For many years he successfully led FATA’s two operating divisions, FATA Hunter (world leader in engineering and equipment manufacturing for the aluminium flat rolled product industries) and FATA EPC (supplier of complete plants on a LSTK-EPC basis), as Chief Executive Officer.
The news is that since January of this year Tony has finished his period and relationship with FATA SpA, he has formed his own company, TT Consulting Inc., providing management consulting services for metals, mining and contracting sectors, and joined as a Senior Advisor the Foundry Ecocer Srl group, the Italian company active in the production and marketing of products and consumables for the non-ferrous foundries and secondary metal producers worldwide. We meet Tony Tropeano at the Brescia editorial office of A&L, together with Maurizio Sala, CEO of Foundry Ecocer, and we talk about this important collaboration in a sector that has been moving forward for some time with a very interesting dynamic.

Mr. Tropeano, what are the most qualifying points of his close collaboration with Foundry Ecocer, compared to his rich experience in the great plant engineering of the first aluminium processes?
During many years of top management in Fata, I have evidently gained a deep knowledge of the main world markets in the field of light alloy transformations and processing, those productive sectors in which Foundry Ecocer foundry materials, systems and solutions are used. increasingly widespread; we are convinced that with my strategic consulting it is possible to accelerate and facilitate the penetration in many specific markets with high growth potential, integrating at best the typical flexibility of the company with my knowledge on the characteristics and needs of important end users.

In which areas of the world do you plan to engage more effectively in this new type of activity?
In this first phase of screening we look with great interest at the Middle East, an area in which Foundry Ecocer has already set promising initiatives, as well as countries that, as we all know, is starting a significant process of growth on the aluminium chain, like Russia and India. Particular attention will then be dedicated to the North American area, which has always been at the center of Maurizio Sala’s interest, on which we will concentrate our common considerable efforts. Foundry Ecocer has a range of offers that are not only wide and diversified but also, from a technical and functional point of view, always renewed and measured on the specific needs of the client, it will not be too difficult to confront the competition, even the most fierce, on difficult and demanding markets.

Let’s talk a bit about the production of continuous casting sheets, what developments do you think can occur in this sector,
for which markets and for which final destinations of the product?
Your question is very well linked to what we said earlier about product innovation, the aluminum technologies in foundry are now traveling at super speed, the same must be the consumables for the plants, in particular in the field of the intended aluminium sheet to food uses, where productivity and metallurgical quality must be at the highest possible levels. In this regard Foundry Ecocer has moved very well, an excellent example is that of the Oman Aluminum Rolling Company, a continuous casting plant of 140 thousand tons a year of standard coils in alloys 3000, 5000 and 8000, located near the Sohar smelter, in which, with the use of a new Foundry Ecocer ceramic material with low thermal dispersion for the pouring channels, very efficient and remarkably competitive efficiency levels have been achieved.

We conclude this brief conversation with a note of strict relevance, the Italian aluminum has recently made contact with the Indian light metal system, two very different worlds but for this very well can be integrated with their strengths and weaknesses. Does it not believe that a greater exchange of knowledge and dissemination of data in particular with countries like India regarding the importance of food storage and distribution can involve the production of aluminum packaging of adequate efficiency?
This is an opportunity that we have talked about with President Sala for a long time, the issue concerns the Indian market but not only, I know very well the plants he refers to, and the innovative approach of Foundry Ecocer for ad hoc materials in these types of work will be an extra card for the development of our business.