Chimcomplex, the new owner of Oltchim, will keep the employees and the salaries of those who were working on the installations on the Ramnicu Valcea platform and intends to relaunch the production of PVC, which is no longer manufactured in Romania, the chairman of the Board of Directors of Chimcomplex Virgiliu Bancilă said.
The Oltchim Râmnicu Vâlcea petrochemical plant entered into insolvency in 2013. The reorganization plan provided for the sale of assets, which were divided into 9 groups, and Chimcomplex submitted an offer on July 6, 2017, for five asset groups plus a part of the a sixth asset group. On December 18, Chimcomplex’s offer was approved by the Creditors Assembly, according to Agerpres.
The plant was built for five production lines for the main products: chlorosodic products, polyols and polyethers, oxoalcohols and plasticizers, PVC and pesticides. The pesticide group was stopped when Romania joined the European Union in 2007, while the production of PVC (vinyl polychloride) ceased in 2008, with the closure of the Arpechim refinery, where the raw material came from. Oltchim was the only PVC producer in the country.
“Three product groups, which we have bid for, plus some of the PVC-producing equipments that are currently off. We have also bought installations from this group with the thought that in the second stage of investments, we will restart the production of PVC”, said Bancilă.
He showed that last year was a very good one for Oltchim, the company having a real profit of about 12 million euros, with a turnover of about 200 million euros. The results were favored by a good market, a situation that will continue in 2018, says Chimcomplex leader.
“The price for the assets we have bid for was 127 million euros. Besides, we have assumed investments of EUR 13.7 million on the environmental protection line, as stipulated in the contract. What which is not foreseen in the contract, but it is in our business plan, is the realization, afterwards, of investments to develop and consolidate the industrial platform in Râmnicu Vâlcea”, he continued.
Bîncilă has shown that there is plan for keeping the current number of employees as well as the salaries they currently have, with the employee’s benefits to grow later on.
“The staffing policy is adapted to the needs of these assets.The human resource is very important. We have promised to hire the staff needed to operate these facilities and we estimate this means between 1,300 and 1,400 employees. We will keep the salary package and other advantages that people have at the moment, then, depending on the outcome of the company, we anticipate some improvements, as there are valuable specialists who need to be motivated to carry out a profitable activity” , Băncilă said.
At present, Oltchim has 2,000 employees, of which 1,800 at Vâlcea and 200 at Piteşti, on Bradu platform, while in Chimcomplex facilities work around 1,450 people. “Many of them qualify for retirement and it depends on what they will decide. We intend to use them because they have a great experience,” he added.
Chimcomplex Director showed that investments of about EUR 70 million are planned for the first three years in order to solve environmental problems, to eliminate bottlenecks and to improve technologies in terms of production costs. In the second stage, from the third to the fifth year, a massive development of the Vâlcea platform will be carried out, so that the flow of PVC can be resumed.