Fri, Feb 10 2012

Wartime reserves buying Kremikovtzi steel

Wed, Nov 12 2008 10:40 CET

bydnevnik.bg

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Bulgaria's wartime reserve fund has started buying out the last quantities of steel produced at the country's down-beaten Kremikovtzi mill, said Vassil Yanachkov, head of the Confederation of the Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) union at the plant.

The measure was approved by the Cabinet last week to raise cash and pay the overdue wages for August and September after Ukrainian Vorskla Steel dropped the tolling agreement with the mill over worsening market conditions.

The wages will be paid in several instalments, a top Kremikovtzi official said.

The steel should fetch about 24 million leva, of which 11 million leva has been slated for workers' pay.

Ukrainian company Smart Group, whose envoys have seen the plant and whose owner Vadim Novinski talked to Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev, had not laid out any concrete plans with Kremikovtzi or the ministry.

Sources familiar with the matter told Dnevnik last week that the Ukrainian suitor was pleased with the mill but no offer has been submitted yet. Smart Group is in the process of merging its mining and steel assets with Metinvest, the company owned by Ukraine's richest man Rinat Akhmetov.

Kremikovtzi's chemical coke-oven batteries are now running at a loss, using natural gas after its coal reserves ran out. All equipment will be shut down unless Bulgaria finds an operator to rescue the insolvent mill, which is undergoing bankruptcy procedures.

Source: Dnevnik

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Bulgargas shuts gas supply to Kremikovtzi

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