Warsaw (Puls Biznesu) – In Mach, Eurostrategy consulting company will finish its report ordered by the European Commission evaluating restructuring process in Polish steel plants. Mittal Steel Poland, which controls around 70 percent of the Polish market, has not started the projects worth PLN 1.7 billion (EUR 434.5 m) it promised in the privatisation agreement. The projects should be completed till the end of 2006.
‘We have had signals that Mittal Steel may not finish the promised investments in time and we have asked its management to say whether the company will manage to do realise the projects or whether we should get started for talks with Brussels’, Jacek Piechota, Poland’s deputy Minister of Economy said. Unless the investments are done on time, Brussels may require the public subsidy to be received. Mittal Steel Poland has received around PLN 2.5 billion of public help. ‘If Brussels questions the agreement, it is the company who pays the money back’, Jacek Piechota added. The opinion of EC will be known in several weeks. The Treasury has a 25 percent stake in Mittal Steel Poland, and a pawn on investor’s shares, which is a guarantee of the investment program.
Mittal Steel Poland does not comment the situation. The company assures only that projects will be realised. Unofficially, the company accuses the Polish government for delays. For example, instead of modernising flat steel plant in Krakow, the investor decided to build a new one but needed the opinion of the Treasury. The ministry has not given it yet although representatives of Mittal Steel Poland believe this is sheer formality.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.256)
Poland/Enterprises/Metals and Mining/Privatisation/EU