By K. Deligiannis & L. Kalamara
Greece's biggest and most historic steel mill, Halyvourgiki, faces the immediate prospect of a blackout due to its long-term arrears to the Public Power Corp. (PPC), the dominant electricity utility in the country.
PPC this week reportedly renewed its request to the Independent Power Transmission Operator, which oversees the grid, to cut off power to the industrial unit, located due west of Athens in the coastal Elefsina district. The ATHEX-listed utility, itself facing cash flow problems, had offered Halyvourgiki a grace period in order to commence a repayment plan. The plant, officially named Halyvourgiki Hellenic Steel Industry S.A., must cover arrears of nearly 32 million euros to the PPC.
Workers' representatives were briefed by PPC officials earlier in the month over the major problem of accumulated arrears and new arrears.
According to reports, the company has not prepared a framework to continue to receive electricity as a self supplied power consumer.
Speaking on the sidelines of a PPC shareholders' general assembly on Monday, PPC CEO E. Panagiotakis said the utility aims to take the legal route in order to secure payment from Halyvourgiki.
The company has operated for nearly a century, being Greece's only fully vertical steel mill during the 1960s and 1970s. The company began as a nail manufacturer in 1932 and developed into a small-scale steel producer in south-central Athens in 1938.
The Elefsina plant was inaugurated in 1953, with Greece's first blast furnace opened in 1963. A second blast furnace in 1975 raised its production capacity to 2.5 million tons of steel annually.
The industrial concern's gradual but continued downturn began in 1981. The punishing economic crisis and the high cost of electricity forced the steel mill to significantly cut back operations in 2012.
