/ EXPORTS 2. The currency. A strong Euro against the US Dollar or the Yen. On the other hand, also the current lack of govern- ment supporting activities performed abroad. The sales chain for countries outside the Euro zone is very costly; maintaining global presence in three continents requires a costly dedication of Marketing resources: launch campaigns, presence at international trade fairs, etc. 3. At present, this represents 90% of the turnover. 4. Our main markets are China, the US, Taiwan, Italy, Germany and Brazil. We are also developing India and Russia. The manufacturing and consumption of MT is highly concentrated in the Asian markets, which currently represent >50%. The analyses we have performed indi- cate that this percentage will increase in the future; there- fore, Asia is our priority area in so far as future growth. 1. We have been exporting since the start. Probably the hardest part was, and I say probably because those who started are all retired, the lack of experience in those years regarding travelling, communication (languages, means ...), currencies... 2. Nowadays, with all the years of experience we have, we see no difficulty in exporting, except for the competition, as the entire sector is selling to the entire world. United Kingdom. 5. Of course, China and India are currently two of our best 1. Since the late 1960s, Izar started to export significant quantities and its main difficulties were the different economic crisis (the fuel one in 1973, felt by Izar a decade later, or the 1993 crisis), in addition to the excess weight of the American market and its sales in Dollars in compa- rison to Izar’s total. Andima Laskurain, general economic director of Nicolás Correa: “Those who started exporting had to resolve” 2. Mainly the increase in the number of competitors, of low- quality Asian products distributed by national importers and the constant uncertainties within the western markets for cutting and hardware tools. 3. Nowadays, our figures are around 70% for exports and 30% for the Spanish national market. 4. The foreign markets in which we have the most clients are Germany, the US and France. As potential markets, we can mainly highlight Russia, Turkey, Brazil, China and Mexico, which are gaining evermore importance for us. 5. Yes, but relatively, due to the distance and the increase of the transportation costs. These are important for Izar, but Europe is much more important. 3. Of our total turnover, exports currently represent 95%. 4. In this order, I would say China, Germany, India and the markets. 20 / Aitor Casasempere, exports director for Izar: “At present, the difficulties are due to an increase of poor quality competition”