Fertilizer factory in Antwerp may partially resume work
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© Burt Sytsma Photography
Fertilizer manufacturer EuroChem in Antwerp has been given to resume production. The company is co-owned by Russian oligarch Andrei Melnichenko, who has been charged by the European Union (EU).
The bank balances have been frozen and the Antwerp branch has filed for bankruptcy for the time being. The final solution is, and should only be used to pay the approximately 400 employees.
Billion Dollars
EuroChemn in Antwerp about 2 million to fertilizer per year. EuroChem is one of the five largest fertilizer producers in the world with a turnover of 5.48 billion euros. It has offices in Russia, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Lithuania, Germany, Belgium, Brazil, China and the United States. It operates with more than 27,000 employees in 100 countries.
The company announced last month that Melnichenko had stepped down as a director and majority shareholder. President Vladimir Rashevskiy has also withdrawn.
Export ban
Last month, Russia’s Ministry of Trade and Industry, in response to EU sanctions, recommended that the country’s fertilizer producers stop exports. Such a ‘recommendation’ in practice is an export ban, ordered by the Kremlin. There are other countries that produce and export fertilizers, but they are considerably more expensive.
Belarus, another major supplier of potassium to the European Union, South America and the United States, has also shut down fertilizer exports because it no longer has access to the (Baltic Sea) port of Klaipeda in northern neighboring Lithuania.