Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Bulgaria's largest steel manufacturer, Stomana Industry, will lay off 301 workers from all departments at its production plant in Pernik. According to the representative of Viohalco, the holder of the company, the reduction is necessary, as the company has experienced 40% decline of orders and drop of steel prices, paired with increasing power supply and carbon emission prices. Moreover, the automobile industry shift to electric vehicles manufacturing and excess steel production worldwide lead to a slow decline of orders already in 2019. According to the company's management, the outbreak of the COVID-19 is worsening the economic perspectives and is making the restructuring programme inevitable.
Currently, there is no information about negotiations with trade unions, type of workers to be dismissed or type of jobs lost.
Stomana Industry has been present on the Balkan and international market for more than 50 years and manufactures a wide range of products, including reinforced steel, heavy plate, merchant bars, special steels, special profiles and sections. It is fully owned by the Greek-based Sidenor Holdings, which merged into the Belgian-based Viohalco.
Eurofound (2020), Stomana Industry, Internal restructuring in Bulgaria, factsheet number 100139, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/100139.