EuroChem was allowed to partially resume its operations in Belgium

The government of Belgium has allowed EuroChem to restart its subsidiary EuroChem Antwerpen. The operations of the enterprise were suspended in March this year after the owner of EuroChem, Andrey Melnichenko, fell under sanctions imposed by the European Union. On March 10, EuroChem announced that Andrey Melnichenko had sold the controlling stake in the company and ceased to be its major beneficiary.

The management of EuroChem Antwerpen has spent several weeks developing two restart scenarios. The first is to convince the EU authorities that EuroChem has nothing to do with Andrey Melnichenko. The second is to continue operations of EuroChem Antwerpen under external supervision. Which scenario has been chosen is unknown but the work may be resumed.

However, EuroChem Antwerpen is allowed to produce only single-component fertilizers, while the complex ones are still prohibited. The funds received from their sale will be used to make key payments, such as paying salaries to employees.

EuroChem will also ask for temporary protection from creditors since the funds of EuroChem Antwerpen are still blocked in accounts in Western banks. And, finally, the date of its restart is still unknown.

EuroChem acquired the EuroChem Antwerpen plant in 2012 from BASF. It can produce a million tons of nitrogen and 1.2 million tons of NPK fertilizers per year. The fifth part of its output is consumed by Belgian agriculture.

Source: The Tijd