"Vedomosti”: “Pikalyovo plant may stop work again”
The Pikalyovo plant, which resumed operation in June following Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's intervention, is again under the threat of stoppage.
The Apatit company has stopped nepheline concentrate supplies to BaselCement-Pikalyovo. The latter says that its reserves will last for the next several days. If the plant stops operation, Metakhim and Pikalyovo Cement, which receive raw materials from the plant, will also stop work. Meanwhile, BaselCement will have to reduce production in order to keep afloat as long as possible using the remaining raw material stock, the company's spokesman says.
The reason for the termination of supplies is short-term repairs about which the client has been warned, says a representative of PhosAgro, which controls Apatit. A BaselCement spokesman denies this, saying concentrate supplies have been stopped because the supply contract expired on November 16 and the companies have failed to agree on future supplies. The Pikalyovo plant made an offer to Apatit to extend the contract at 850 roubles per metric ton of concentrate, but the supplier wanted 1,025 roubles per metric ton, the BaselCement spokesman says. The PhosAgro representative confirmed this information, adding that the current price was below production costs.
The Pikalyovo plant stopped operation in February when Apatit terminated raw material supplies. Production resumed only in June, after the plant's workers blocked the federal highway. Putin made the partners sign new contracts but their term has expired by now.
Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin has instructed the Federal Anti-Trust Service (FAS) to calculate new prices for the Pikalyovo plant. A letter sent by FAS deputy head Andrei Tsyganov to the Trade and Industry Ministry says that his agency has worked out the concentrate price formula as tied to the LME aluminium prices (Vedomosti has a copy of this letter). According to this formula, nepheline concentrate should cost 988 roubles per metric ton. The recommended price of nepheline-containing tailings (used by Pikalyovo Cement) is 520 roubles, and of carbonate mud (for Metakhim) is 1,050 roubles. A ministry spokesman confirmed the receipt of the letter but refused to comment on it. PhosAgro and BaselCement also refused to comment on the FAS's proposal.
Alexandra Terentyeva
