Polish PHS to invite buyers
Poland, aiming for accessing the EU by 2006 is progressing in the process of privatisation and restructuring plans. The Polish Council of Ministers and the EU Commission have agreed on the industry restructuring plan, and now
Poland is aiming to send invitations to interested companies to participate in the talks for sale of Palsy Hutu Stale (PHS).
The restructuring was a requirement by the EU Commission for allowing the accession of the country to the Union. The overall
production will be cut down by 900'000mts per year, after completion of restructuring.
The names of companies to be invited for talks are quoted as LNM Holdings,
US Steel, Marcelo and Thysenkrupp Stahl.
The Polish government and EU Commission were in negotiations to agree on a restructuring plan of the mills which would carry
Poland to a stage enough to compete on the European market until 2006, without subsidies. The restructuring plan now approved, includes a reduction of finished product capacity to 4.47 million tons per year by 2006 and modernisation projects at the four mills. Such modernisation would require a state subsidy of around 2.4 billion zloty (€605million) from the total allocation of 3.25 billion zloty (€820million) total state aid.
PHS was created in May by merging the four Polish steel mills; Huta Sendzimira, Huta Katowice, Huta Cedlera and Huta Florian.