Lithuania’s sanction-hit phosphate fertilizer manufacturer Lifosa said on Monday that it is preparing to restart production after a one-year hiatus, adding that the continuity of operations will depend on various economic, operational, and legal circumstances.
“The possibilities for a smooth return of Lifosa’s advanced products to the market have been ensured now,” it said in a statement.
The plant in Kedainiai, in central Lithuania, has not resumed operations since it was shut down for annual scheduled maintenance in May 2023.
The last time Lifosa planned to restart production was in March.
Vitalijus Varnas, chairman of Lifosa’s independent trade union, then told BNS that he had heard from the management that final decisions on the company’s future operations were “a matter of days rather than weeks or months”, but that this would depend mainly on whether the banks would not suspend the company’s payments.
S&P Global reported last year that Lifosa’s shareholders, who had planned to temporarily mothball the Lithuanian plant from October 2023, were looking to restart production and resume nitrogen phosphates deliveries to global customers.
The plant currently employs 882 people, based on data from the state social insurance fund Sodra.
Lifosa’s accounts were frozen after the EU imposed sanctions on Andrey Melnichenko, a Russian oligarch close to the Kremlin, on March 9, 2022.
Lifosa is 100 percent owned by Swiss-registered EuroChem Group, which is 90 percent owned by AIM Capital, a Cyprus-based company that was owned by Melnichenko before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and whose current beneficiary is his wife Alexandra. Both are on the EU’s list of sanctioned persons.
Source: BNS
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