Transgaz Agreement Keeps Nitroporos Production On Hold

Although plans were to resume production two weeks ago, the management of Nitroporos - Fagaras, formerly the chemical plant Nitramonia, have learned that they need further permits and agreements to restart the pipeline connecting the Transgaz grid to the company. Scheduled to convene in Medias today, the Technical Certification Commission could give the green light for resuming gas supplies via the pipe and thus help unblock the already difficult situation of Nitroporos. "We are ready to resume work as soon as gas supply is resumed," Lucian Cupu from Nitroporos said.

He explained that two weeks would have to pass between the moment when methane supply was resumed and the moment when the factory was fully operational again. "We will need a week to run tests on the electro-thermo power plant of the company and then three or four days to test the acid installation required for the finished product. Then we will proceed with restarting the final installation," Cupu said.

The residents of Fagaras are looking forward to seeking the factory operational again, as 100-200 of them would be hired immediately, while other hundreds of jobs would be created by the end of the year. Specifically, the factory would increase the headcount from the current 545 employees to approximately 1,000 employees.

Ioan NIculae, the owner of InterAgro Group and of Nitroporos - Fagaras, said he was currently having talks with a company in North Africa interested in buying half of the factory"s production of explosives for civilian use, as well as one of the largest mining companies in Europe, which he did not want to nominate.

Nitroporos SRL was established on 7 March 2008 and is currently managing the assets of the companies formerly operating in the Nitramonia - Fagaras industrial park which were bought by Viromet - Victoria, a member of InterAgro Group, controlled by Ioan Neculaie. Viromet - Victoria won the tender organized by the liquidator Euroconsult SPRL - Arad in December 2007 for 33 million RON including VAT.

Following voluntary liquidation procedures, approximately 80% of the 569 employees of the five companies in the industrial park (NItroexplosives, Nitrofertilizer, Nitrocontrol, Nitroservice and Nitrotrans) were given notice on 22 October 2007 pending the termination of their employment contracts. Severance was granted as per Emergency Ordinance of the Government no. 116/2007. The first 400 employees were laid off as of 1 November, a few months before the second phase of the layoffs, in early 2008.

Gladwell, a corporate business partner of Ioan Niculae, the owner of InterAgro, acquired 60% in Nitroporos last year. George Colcea, the Director of Viromet - Victoria, said the new majority shareholders were Greek Cypriots, while Ioan Niculae is sure that they are Slavic, and not Greek. "I cannot tell you where they are from," the Prahova-based businessman said at the time when the deal was closed. Niculae said that Gladwell, as the new majority shareholder, would make a capital injection of 28 million EUR in both technological assets and environmental improvements.