Competitive sustainable strategies in the aluminum manufacturing exporting firms: Evidence from Greece

The Greek aluminum sector constitutes one of the most important sectors of the Greek economy despite the problems it faces (Foundation for Economic & Industrial Research [IOBE], 2024). With the use of financial ratios and the calculation of the breakeven point analysis and the Z-score, this paper aims to estimate the competitiveness of the four dominant aluminum manufacturing exporting Greek firms, filling the existing gap in the literature for the specific sector for the 2018–2023 periods. The main results show that these firms present satisfying results in terms of liquidity, profitability, and activity ratios and should also strengthen their competitive status with the use of proper strategies such as vertical integration, a result which differentiates the current paper from other relevant works.