GERMAN COMPANY IS TRYING TO DRIVE MECHEL’S PLANT TO BANKRUPTCY

The BNF Envirotek company located in the Leningrad region at the end of March applied to the Irkutsk Arbitration Court with a statement of insolvency of the Bratsk Ferroalloy Plant (BFP), owned by the Mechel group. Since many procedural violations were committed during the filing of the claim (in particular, no evidence of the payment of the duty and the publication of the notice on the Fedresurs website was presented), the court left the application without action until May 7.

BNF Envirotek is a branch of a German company in Russia that supplies filters. In total, the plaintiff has 10 production facilities in different countries.

The amount of BFP's debt obligations to BNF Envirotek is 46.69 million rubles.

Experts note that the initiative to bankrupt the BFP by the German company is far from the first one filed against the Mechel group in recent years. In 2020 alone, there were four such claims, and in all cases the company managed to avoid bankruptcy in connection with various violations indicated by the judges rejecting the claims.

In April last year, BNF Envirotek has already applied to a company from Bratsk with a claim for more than € 522 thousand. In the course of consideration of case No. А19-6754 / 2020, a counterclaim for € 1.9 thousand was filed by the defendant. As a result, by the end of the year, an amicable agreement was signed between the companies.

According to the agreement reached, the Bratsk plant undertook to pay the main debt under the supply agreement concluded between the companies earlier (No. 197 dated August 20, 2019) in two tranches of € 40 thousand each by December 25 and January 29, and then by transferring several tranches of € 100 thousand each until February 26 and March 31.

The rest of the debt was supposed to be paid off with the payment of € 100 thousand by April 30 and € 142.6 thousand by the end of May.

BFP is a large industrial enterprise producing silicon-containing ferrosilicon (with 65% and 75% silicon). It is used in metallurgy, allowing the production of various types of steel (alloy, carbon, stainless steel), including those resistant to extreme temperatures and acidic agents.

The source of smelting for the enterprise is quartzite mined at the Uvat deposit located in the Irkutsk region. Earlier it was reported about plans to modernize the smelting production. This would increase the capacity of the enterprise by 30%. Whether these plans are now destined to come true is a big question.