At the start of this week the government again had to handle the situation with Moldova Steel Works (MMZ). It issued a statement pointing out that persistent, let alone importunate, attention paid by some Supreme Council members to MMZ began to threaten its business reputation. Hence, the production process itself.
This statement did not occur out of nowhere, in other words, it was not the government's whim to comment on the MMZ situation. It was prompted by an appeal of the plant's management and personnel to the chairman of the Supreme Council, Vadim Krasonselsky, a copy of which was also sent to the government.
The document says: on 18 May, at a parliamentary session deputy Safonov said that MMZ, launched on 5 May, might stop again. This statement was caught up and circulated in every way possible by some non-governmental media outlets.
Meanwhile, as MMZ workers note, this information was false and unconfirmed. It is most harmful, however, in yet another way: another portion of rumours worried MMZ's business partners, including those from Europe. The plant received a number of letters from its customers and suppliers asking what was going on, if MMZ would fulfil its liabilities, how it would further work, etc. Additional prepayment demands were made to MMZ, which only aggravates the plant's financial situation under current already difficult circumstances.
MMZ personnel were also struck by the fact that MPs' hasty statements damage, first of all, the biggest state-run enterprise, which, as it may seem, they should have taken special care about.
Andrey Safonov's statement, however, was not the first of its kind. Earlier, another MP representing Rybnitsa, Vadim Kravchuk, said that in early 2016 there had been mass layoffs, with about a thousand workers dismissed. Later he had apologised, admitting the inauthenticity of that information. But it had already been done — another «drop of poison» was added to MMZ's reputation.
The plant's acting CEO, Alexander Boshtanar, told our agency what such things may really lead to. «Behind all this are very serious relations with our partners. For example, we had planned to launch the plant and start production as early as 28 April. But the Techcom company, preoccupied by the rumours around the plant, set forth stricter conditions on refractory supplies, demanding prepayment. We could not settle up with the them at once and had to delay the launch for nearly a week. In that week we lost about $450,000 — 500,000 in revenues," said the CEO, adding that MMZ would defend its reputation and was preparing suits against those MPs who spread such information without inquiring into it.
It should be noted one more time that MMZ's work also means the workload, and hence a rise in tax receipts, of other sub-contracting enterprises. One thing entails another. This particularly relates to Moldavskaya GRES, Pridnestrovian railway, gas-transport infrastructure. According to Alexander Boshtanar, MMZ contributed a total of 500 million roubles to the Pridnestrovian budget in 2015.
«Every manager and MP must realise that the most important thing for a plant worker is that the plant works. The plant works, everything affiliated with the plant works, the country's budget receives tax payments, MMZ workers enjoy prosperity. We only ask: if you cannot help the plant, don't interfere at least," said Alexander Boshtanar. And there is nothing more to add…
Today, MMZ depends, first of all, on scrap metal supplies. According to specialists, scrap is currently supplied from Moldova and partly from Romania; local raw stuff is also used. The main thing MMZ is awaiting now is how the problem of exporting Ukraine's scrap will be resolved. On 21 April Ukraine's parliament passed a law rising export duties on ferrous metal scrap from €10 to 30 per tonne for the period of three years. However, on 14 May the Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, vetoed this law.
«The amount of scrap we are buying today is sufficient to produce about 30,000 tonnes of steel. If Ukraine's metal scrap is available, the output can be increased to 40,000 — 45,000 tonnes. We will reach our last year's output, which was record-breaking over the past years.
I'd rather not think that persistent, accentuated attention by MPs to MMZ is connected with someone’s attempts to worsen the plant's financial standing. But so far the situation nearly looks as described by President Shevchuk at his recent press conference. Let's recall: he did not exclude that various rumours about MMZ were deliberately aroused and those experts might be right who claim that one of the biggest Pridnestovian corporations is not interested in having competitors with comparable material resources in the PMR.
