Sunningwell agrees to lease Huta Czestochowa

Sunningwell International Polska has signed an agreement to lease ISD Huta Czestochowa (HCz) for 12 months. The investment fund will pay a PLN 1.8 million ($453,000) leasing fee.

Sunningwell has already paid a deposit of PLN 6m and three months of rent. Its next rent payment for the following three months must be paid by 2 October. The firm also agreed it will be unable to lay off any workers or make capital expenditure on the plant without the permission of the administrator. Workers should be paid their outstanding wages by end-September.

Production must be restarted in October, failing which the administrator has the right to terminate the contract, the Czestochowa district court spokesman tells Kallanish.

HCz’s staff are due to return to work in the coming days to prepare for the production restart. The mill has to procure scrap and slab, while its equipment must be inspected. According to a note on HCz’s website, production at the meltshop will be restarted on 10 October, followed a few days later by the heavy plate mill. Sunningwell representatives plan to visit the steelworks on 23 September.

HCz initiated bankruptcy proceedings at the end of June after suspending production indefinitely in May due to a shortage in working capital needed to purchase scrap and pig iron feedstock (see Kallanish passim).

Electric arc furnace-based HCz has an 800,000 tonnes/year slab capacity and 1.2 million t/y capacity of heavy plate.