The new plan of the government for the future of the heavy chemical industry is gradually coming into shape. By the beginning of June it should be put before the cabinet.
The role played by fuel concern PKN Orlen is critical The treasury wants to privatise the sector once it is restructured and the fuel giant is playing a big part in these plans.
Ciech has said that it is interested in obtaining a stake in the industry. The state still has a majority stake in this company. Ludwik Klinkosz, MD of Ciech has said that he will make an offer for fertiliser concerns but the sector places most hopes on PKN Orlen.
The former board of Orlen headed by Andrzej Modrzejewski was uninterested in the chemical sector but he has now gone. The state says that it will not force any company that is even partially privately owned to take part but despite the low 28 percent holding it has in PKN, no-one doubts that it could force its point as the largest single shareholder. Furthermore if PKN Orlen is linked to the Gdansk refinery then the stake of the state could increase to almost forty percent. With its people on the board, the treasury will do what it wants as it has proven so many times. In this case they will push the fuel concern to support the chemical industry.
This would mean that PKN would have to develop its petrochemical production side to meet the requirements of the heavy chemical industry as well as having to go into capital alliances with suppliers of raw materials for the petrochemical industry.
The current plan is to liquidate Poland’s present very negative balance of payments in chemicals. It is now almost USD5.5m.
The treasury is determined to rescue the branch from the black clouds gathering over it. It wants to build up again the production supply chain for highly refined products such as plastics. The government thinks that this would lead to the creation of new jobs.