Update: 04/30/2024 10:41 AM
Issued by: 30/04/2024, 10:41
Ostrava – The metallurgical company Liberty Ostrava will probably know next week whether it will continue to link its future with the energy supplier Tameh Czech, or whether it will carry out the restructuring plan without it with the help of other suppliers and a new energy complex. Kateřina Zajíčková, spokeswoman for the smelter, told ČTK today.
The majority of about 1,300 creditors of the smelter voted for the restructuring plan. The results must be confirmed by the court. The plan has two variants: in variant A, Liberty agrees with Tameh, plan B envisages a solution without Tameh. Liberty states that in the case of option A, the blast furnace, which has been in a so-called warm depression for more than half a year, would start up in the summer and repay creditors’ claims by the spring of 2026. In the case of option B, it would have energy supplies from other suppliers and from the new energy complex, the company would start the furnace at the turn of 2024 and 2025 and repay creditors’ claims by the end of 2025.
In the plan, Liberty states that April 30 is the crucial date for launching one of the alternatives. “This date was chosen by the Entrepreneur (Liberty) as an objective limit by which the Entrepreneur will simultaneously negotiate with the Tameh company and at the same time work on the preparatory steps for the launch of Alternative B. The Entrepreneur assumes that by this date the preparatory work on the alternative solution will have progressed so far that a return to the option of cooperation with the Tameh company will no longer be possible,” the company said.
Zajíčková said today that April 30 is the deadline for negotiations with Tameh. “We have five days to decide whether we will go with plan A or plan B, up to and including May 5. This means we will know whether we will go with plan A or plan B until next week,” said Zajíčková.
Tameh’s spokesman Patrik Schober told CTK today that Tameh rejected the meeting proposed by Liberty last week as expedient. “Liberty Ostrava is to blame for the situation and refuses to resolve it. It does not pay the debt and is trying to remove Tameh Czech from the list of affected creditors. In order for Liberty Ostrava to meet the conditions of the restructuring plan, a meeting with Tameh Czech should take place by April 30. However, by until Liberty starts repaying the debt or clearly declares how it envisions further cooperation, further negotiations are pointless,” said Schober.
Creditors voted to exclude Tameh from voting on the restructuring plan. According to the smelter, 86.65 percent of them were in favor of exclusion. Tameh states that the smelter owes him approximately 2.2 billion crowns, making him its biggest creditor. Schober has previously said that the company will challenge Liberty’s restructuring plan in court.
Liberty Ostrava, which produces steel mainly for the construction, engineering and petrochemical industries, has around 5,000 employees. It has had trouble paying its obligations for a long time, and most of their operations have been standing still since last December, when Tameh stopped its energy supply. Tameh employs around 300 people. Most of the workers of both companies have been at home since December. Liberty stated that at the end of February, it recorded total liabilities of approximately 16.4 billion crowns.
Tameh Czech ended up in bankruptcy, which he justified by the fact that the smelter, his only customer, did not pay him. Last week, the court confirmed the resolution of the creditors’ meeting, which approved Tameha’s reorganization.
Tameh is a former Energetika plant built as a part of the then Nová huti, now Liberty. Tameh smelters supplied electricity, gases and steam. Liberty supplied Tameh with fuel in the form of blast furnace and coke oven gases, without which the operation of the energy company is essential. When the smelter was owned by the ArcelorMittal group, Energetika was separated into a separate company.
