Nitroporos Făgăraş halts production

Chemical plant "Nitroporos" Făgăraş - formerly "Nitramonia" - has halted production at the end of last week, according to company sources.

Strangely enough, the employees have not been notified of any plan to restructure the company, as work continues as usual. "A decision may be made one of these days concerning staff reorganization or even the resumption of operations, but for now, the activity is on hold after having finished processing the ammonia that we had in our warehouses", Lucian Cupu, the leader of the union of the Nitramonia platform.

As early as the end of 2010, the "InterAgro" group announced that it would shut down "Nitroporos", but it went back on its decision and resumed the contract to process ammonia. In January a decision had been made to lay off up to 168 employees, but in February this decision was suspended at the proposal of the management of the group, in order to seize the opportunity of rising fertilizer prices on the world market, a moment which coincided with an increase in the volume of orders placed with "InterAgro".

At the end of 2010, "InterAgro" wanted to completely halt the activity of "Nitroporos" Făgăraş because the cost of production exceeded the price at which fertilizer could be sold on the international markets. Another reasons was the fact that the provisions of the law 332/2009 had no longer been extended, by which consumers which met the requirements and registered themselves as uninterruptible under emergency situations were only allowed to buy gas produced domestically, at a lower price, as well as the fact that the price of gas increased 55% in Q4 2010, and the cost of purchasing natural gas accounts for 70% of the total expenses of the chemical plants owned by "InterAgro".

This month InterAgro has also stopped production at the chemical plants of Turnu Măgurele and Slobozia, which means that the group of companies owned by Ioan Niculae has stopped all his operations in the petrochemical sector.