Polish seamless pipemaker faces liquidation

Poland’s Alchemia plans to liquidate its seamless pipemaking unit Walcownia Rur Andrzej (WRA). The decision was made because of WRA’s inability to compete on the market due to outdated production technology and the high cost of keeping the business running, informs Alchemia’s parent company, Boryszew.

Increased expenditure for maintenance and modernising production technology is “unjustified in technological and economic terms”, Boryszew says in a note seen by Kallanish. Liquidation of the unit will bring higher economic benefits than maintaining production, it adds.

Zawadzkie-based WRA’s revenue in 2023 was PLN 183 million ($46.5m), down 35% on-year. The firm has a 70,000 tonnes/year capacity of seamless pipe.

Its 435 workers all face being laid off. The Silesia-Opole division of the Solidarnosc trade union plans a picket line at WRA in protest of the liquidation on 4 June.

Unions have criticised management’s decision to inform them of the liquidation only 15 minutes prior to communicating the news to workers. The pipe mill is being liquidated not only because of punitive climate policy, but also because the owner failed to invest sufficiently in the production lines, unions point out.

Adam Smith Poland