Romania’s biggest chemicals company forced to suspend operations over high energy proces

Photo courtesty of Chimcomplex
Photo courtesty of Chimcomplex

Romania’s largest chemical complex has again temporarily suspended production at one of its platforms for two weeks due to energy costs.

Chimcomplex

Chimcomplex said it was suspending production at the Borzeşti industrial platform for a fortnight starting Thursday, two weeks after it stopped production at another platform, Profit.ro reported.

The company said the decision was made „taking into account increasing prices for electricity and natural gas”, according to statement to investors published by the Bucharest Stock Exchange.

At the beginning of August, the company temporarily closed its other industrial platform in Râmnicu Vâlcea central Romania, “until the problems are fixed and the supply of energy and steam is resumed”.  The platform was also closed for two weeks starting August 4, BNE intellinews reported.

Profit

Separately, Chimcomplex reported its profit plummeted in in the first half of the year and announced that it expects the negative trend to continue until the end of the year.

The company’s net profit shrank by 42% y or year to 166 million lei in the first six months and  turnover increased by 7% to 1.2 billion lei.

That was offset by a 37% increase in expenses of almost 1.2 billion lei.

Chimcomplex shares are up 11% in the past 12 months, but lost 21% in 2022, on transactions of 66.3 million lei, Bucharest Stock Exchange data show.

Chemicals giant

In 2018, Chimcomplex started building a regional chemicals giant with its takeover of Oltchim, another major Romanian chemicals company.

It later announced investments of 115 million euros in its production platforms at Borzesti and Ramnicu Valceao over the next five years.

It said at the time that the group plans to increase its output from 500,000 tons, which is the combined output of Chimcomplex and Oltchim before the takeover, to 700,000 ton within five years.

Russia

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices soaring, Chimcomplex had a strong start to the year, and it was promoted to the main market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange after its shares soared tenfold over the year, BNE reported.

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