The Liberty Ostrava Smelter plans to completely shut down its coking plant, which has been in a so-called warm depression since December, when the heat is kept significantly lower than during normal operation. The management of the company told the trade unionists on Friday that it is ready to do so. This was said today by the chairman of the basic organization OS KOVO Liberty CR, Petr Slanina.
Slanina said that the company also did not pay two-thirds of the social insurance and the entire health insurance for the employees in March. Ivo Štěrba for Liberty said that during the implementation of the restructuring plan and the financial stabilization of the company, payments may be delayed for a short time.
“Some payments have been delayed due to higher cash demands as we gradually try to ramp up production and get employees back to work. We are in contact with those affected to resolve the situation effectively. Although we will always try to make payments on time, during the implementation of the restructuring plan and the financial stabilization of the company, there may be short-term delays in payments at certain moments,” said Štěrba.
According to Slanina, the shutdown of the coke plant would be irreversible. “We are currently looking for materials for this, because they want to discuss this option with us on Friday. It is their duty,” said the union leader. According to Slanina, if Liberty stopped cooperating with the energy supplier Tameh Czech and shut down the coking plant, it would probably mean higher costs for emission allowances, since the smelter would have nowhere to put the blast furnace gas.
Liberty Ostrava, which produces steel mainly for the construction, engineering and petrochemical industries, has been in trouble since last year. It has been having trouble paying its obligations for a long time, and since December, when Tameh Czech stopped its energy supplies, most of its operations have stopped. Most of the employees of both companies have been at home since then. Liberty Ostrava’s last working blast furnace has been in a warm depression for over half a year.
The payment deadline at Liberty is the tenth business day of the month. Slanina said last month’s paychecks came on time. Even with its subsidiaries, Liberty Ostrava has 5,100 employees according to the company’s data. In mid-April, the company reported that there were more than 1,700 people at work. Now, according to Slanina, there are fewer of them working.
The Ostrava smelter is now waiting to see if the court will approve its restructuring plan. It previously said the plan had been approved by an overwhelming majority of its creditors, and announced on Friday that it had taken the next steps necessary to complete the preliminary restructuring plan. She stated that she no longer expects to work with Tameh. It wants to take energy from other suppliers and from the new energy complex it will build. The company has around 1,300 creditors.
Tameh Czech ended up in bankruptcy, which he justified by the fact that the smelter, his only customer, did not pay him. The court and creditors approved his reorganization. Tameh states that the smelter owes him approximately 2.2 billion crowns, making him its biggest creditor. But Liberty’s creditors decided to exclude Tameh from voting on the restructuring plan and, according to Liberty, approved it.
Tameh’s spokesman, Patrik Schober, has previously stated that the company will object to Liberty’s restructuring plan in court. Before the court decides on the restructuring, according to him, all statements made by Liberty Ostrava are meaningless.
