According to the data issued by the Bulgarian Association of the Metallurgical Industry, in the first half of 2009 Bulgaria registered a 57 percent decrease in its output of crude steel to 334,500 mt, an 85 percent drop in its flat steel product output to 107,400 mt, and a 16 percent drop in its output of long steel products to 360,800 mt, all compared to the same period last year.
Meanwhile, during the period in question, Bulgaria's total sales of steel products amounted to 546,000 mt, with domestic sales still at 209,300 mt, including 37,400 mt of flats - down 79 percent, and 171,900 mt of longs - down 34 percent, both compared to January-June 2008.
In the first half of 2009, Bulgaria exported a total of 336,700 mt of steel products, including 72,100 mt of flats - down 85 percent, and 264,600 mt of longs - up 28 percent, both compared to H1 2008. Bulgaria's deliveries of rolled steel products to European Union countries in the first half of this year amounted to 35.8 percent of its total exports, i.e. to 120,500 mt.
Accordingly, the significant decrease in Bulgaria's steel output, due to the effects of the global financial crisis but mainly due to the closure of the country's largest steelmaker, the insolvent Kremikovtzi, which was the country's only producer of flat steel products. This producer's blast furnaces were idled at the end of last year.
As SteelOrbis previously reported, in May 2009 Bulgaria's national gas company Bulgargaz suspended gas supplies to Kremikovtzi over unpaid bills, following the plant's failure to attract a strategic investor.
Meanwhile, according to a Bulgarian government statement issued on August, a working group is to be formed to propose alternatives for the future of the Kremikovtzi steel mill, while protecting to the utmost the interests of the state, workers and bondholders.