Source: iDnes.cz Date: 11.11.2024 Author: Darek Štalmach
Over seven hundred employees of the bankrupt Liberty steelworks in Ostrava have jobs again. After almost a year of interrupted production, when the machines were started up only for a few small orders, the pipes plant has started its production again.
"We are starting up the pipes plant, with really short campaigns in between, after ten months. Ten contracted kilotons is a great success in this situation," commented Pavel Šedivý, Managing Director of Liberty Ostrava, on the restart of production.
The pipes plant produces carbon steel pipes used in both the construction and oil industries. It ran into problems, along with the whole of Liberty, at the end of last year when production at the entire steelworks was halted due to debts and interruptions in energy supplies. This has now been resumed at the oil plant after Tolling funding was secured for it. "Thanks to Tolling, the smelter can resume production, which started at the smelter almost 70 years ago. Our products have passed demanding audits, for example for non-destructive testing of welded pipes, which opens the door to strategic tenders for gas and heat pipelines," added Pavel Šedivý.
Tolling for the Ostrava smelter is provided by Vítkovice Machinery Trade from the CE Industries group. "We are happy that we have managed to secure inputs and orders and get the pipe mill up and running. We have so far contracted about 90,000 tonnes of inputs and we have orders secured until Christmas," commented Tomáš Mischinger, director of Vítkovice Machinery Trade, on the start of production. "Pipes plant now has about 700 people, it is ready to produce 10 thousand tonnes per month. The main inputs for the pipes plant are from European sources. We import billets from Poland, Italy, or Germany, some supplies come from China and Saudi Arabia, and a few from Russian sources," he specified.
Šimon Peták, the insolvency administrator, is also satisfied with the at least partial resumption of production. "I am very happy that this production has been able to start. Both the pipes plant and the line for the production of shingles are very important for the preservation of the Ostrava plant," Peták commented on the resumption of production. The company is now facing one of the main points of the insolvency proceedings, the first meeting of creditors. They will decide on the future fate of the former "New smelter".