Bulgaria's Economy Minister Petar Dimitrov said on November 7 that Bulgaria's largest steel mill Kremikovtzi appeared to be not salvageable. Cabinet-led talks to find a company willing to operate the steelworks reached a dead-end, while decision-making at Kremikovtzi was made impossible because one of its two receivers was removed by court order earlier in the week, Dnevnik daily reported.

Any decision at Kremikovtzi has to be approved by both bankruptcy receivers to be legally binding. Dimitrov said that he and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev would ask Prosecutor-General Boris Velchev to launch an internal investigation to clarify why the receiver was removed. Albeit unstated, the implication was that the investigation would result in the reinstatement of the receiver.

With only one receiver, Kremikovtzi could not pay the overdue wages to its workforce of more than 5000 people, with its employees still waiting for their salaries for August. The Cabinet authorised spending 24.5 million leva to buy 28 000 tons of steel goods from Kremikovtzi's storage, Dimitrov said as quoted by website mediapool.bg.

But while Dimitrov said that he was told by Kremikovtzi's managers that the steel mill had the goods, the chief executive of the company that operated the steelworks for the past two months said that the same Kremikovtzi managers denied having any goods.

Viktor Demyanuk, CEO of Vorskla Steel Bulgaria, said he was told that Kremikovtzi had nothing in storage. Vorskla Steel won the lawsuit it filed against the steel mill, claiming it was owed money from the advance payment it made under the terms of its tolling agreement with the steelworks, but also that Kremikovtzi did not deliver enough processed steel under the terms of the same agreement.

In the meantime, workers at Kremikovtzi were getting edgy, demanding meetings with top Cabinet officials to get explanations why their overdue wages were not paid. "The authorised people are in place, everything is in place," Kremikovtzi labour union head Vassil Yanachkov told private broadcaster Darik Radio. "We think it is the latest scheme to block Kremikovtzi. The money is there, the metal is there, everything is there, but obstacles are being made up to delay it from happening," he said.

Kremikovtzi was courted by both the world's biggest steelmaker ArcelorMittal and Vorskla, controlled by Ukrainian billionaire Konstantin Zhevago, in the summer of 2008, but both have withdrawn their interest after worries that the global economy was heading for a recession intensified in September.

The steel mill's debt, which has now exceeded 2.2 billion leva, mainly to suppliers of raw materials and the Bulgarian Government, but also to the holders of the 325 million euro bonds issued in 2005, make it an even less attractive takeover target.