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Irish unit of Ispat International shut down

Irish Ispat Limited, a steel company and a subsidiary of Ispat International, has been shut down and a meeting of creditors has been called for appointment of a liquidator, it was officially stated on Tuesday.

The decision was taken in view of the continuing losses at Irish Ispat and after months of evaluating ways to make the plant more competitive in the light of current market conditions.

Ispat International acquired the Irish plant at Haulbowline, formerly known as Irish Steel Limited, from the Irish government in May 1996.

Since then, it has met all of its commitments made to the Irish government in relation to its acquisition of Irish Steel, a spokesperson of the Ispat International said.

Since the acquisition, Ispat International has injected 24 million Irish pounds to fund operating losses and capital investments at Irish Ispat, which is being impacted by extremely difficult economic and market conditions.

Over the last few years, Ispat sought reductions in energy prices, a major cost element, to levels that are competitive with energy prices incurred by its other steel-making operations in Europe.

More recently, the management of Irish Ispat, which has about 400 employees, strived to implement certain cost reduction and production increase proposals but these did not seem to have sufficient support from trade union officials.

Ispat International is the world's eighth largest steel producer with steel-making operations in the US, Canada, Mexico, Trinidad, Germany and France.

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