Romanian Chemical Company, the revival of the petrochemical industry in Romania

By Jerom Bolt
“Oltchim S.A. informs shareholders that the asset sale agreement with Oltchim S.A. has been completed. Borzeşti, by fully transferring the transaction price and the transfer of ownership of the assets as of 08.12.2018 on 07.12.2018, “Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea says in a press release.
Virgiliu Bancilă, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SC Chimcomplex SA Borzeşti, the company that acquired Oltchim’s most important asset packages, declared that the Chimcomplex projects in the short and medium-term after the purchase of Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea aim at creating the Romanian Chemical Company.
The Romanian Chemical Company’s project will relaunch an important branch of the Romanian industry, destroyed in the last 25 years following the privatization process.
In other words, the relaunch of the Romanian chemical industry has all the positive premises. “Romania still has what it takes to succeed: it has raw materials that can be processed in the country, it has qualified staff, very dedicated chemical engineers, has functional industrial platforms and a large market in the country and in the region “Bancila said.
Chimcomplex representatives expect that thousands of jobs will be created by launching the Romanian Chemical Company, developing the businesses of domestic companies, both horizontally and vertically, and increasing the tax base for local and central budgets.
The Romanian Chemical Company will start from a turnover of 250 million euros and will consolidate in the first two years by realizing a significant number of investments for the operation of existing facilities, both in Borzesti and Râmnicu Vâlcea. Thus, the production capacities of the calcium chloride, lime chloride, ferric chloride and caustic soda plant in Borzeşti will be increased and capacity utilization will be increased in the polyols, oxoalcohols and plasticizers installations in Râmnicu Vâlcea.
This consolidation phase will continue in the next 3-5 years with a real turnover of more than 600 million euros through investments in new plants in both Borzeşti and Ramnicu Valcea. Thus, a recrystallized salt plant, pesticide installations at Borzeşti and ethylene oxide and olefin installations in Rîmnicu Vâlcea will be built, where PVC production will be put into operation. The planned investment program amounts to over 275 million euros.
The sale of the assets from Oltchim was prepared from 2015, when the combination from Ramnicu Valcea was visited and audited by dozens of companies. In February 2017 there were submitted non-competitive offers where 14 competitors participated.
SC Chimcomplex SA Borzeşti has provided EUR 127 million for a part of Oltchim’s assets, but has also taken over environmental issues involving tens of millions of euros of investment, committing to an investment program of over 70 million euros the next three years.