Energy companies announced the debt of the MidUral asset in the hundreds of millions
One of the largest enterprises in Pervouralsk may stop because of the debt for energy resources. Energosbyt Plus (part of PJSC T Plus) announced a significant increase in financial obligations for supplies from Russian Chrome 1915 (controlled by Sergey Gilvarg’s MidUral group of companies). At the same time, as the power engineers assure, there is no possibility to de-energize the enterprise, since the debtor enjoys the status of an unswitched consumer and, in fact, switched to payment only according to writ of execution. Now power engineers say that sales have begun large-scale work in order to achieve the ability to de-energize the enterprise by reducing the level of technological armor to adequate values. If successful, Russian Chrome will either be forced to stop or pay hundreds of millions of rubles in a lump sum. In turn, the company in 2021 only got out of multimillion-dollar losses, showing a symbolic profit in the balance sheet. Representatives of Russian Chrome, despite the requirements of Energosbyt Plus, completely deny any debt to the guaranteeing supplier, stating that, according to their version, “they fulfill all obligations for the supply of energy resources on time.”
JSC “Energosbyt Plus” has begun an examination to determine the level of technological armor at JSC “Russian Chrome 1915”. Georgy Kozlov, director of the company’s Sverdlovsk branch, said that following the results of the meeting, the electricity supplier intends to limit supplies to MidUral’s subsidiary in court.
“An examination has been ordered, after receiving its results, a judicial compulsion will follow to revise the volumes of emergency armor. The question, of course, is a long-term one, but I think we will close it in a year. We expect that the new technological reservation will allow the operation of only those units that directly affect the environmental and technological safety of the enterprise. Accordingly, all production activities will be taken out of the scope of technological armor, that is, Russian Chrome will practically not be able to produce products with limited power supply, ” – said the top manager.
To clarify, technological reservation determines the minimum list of equipment used in a completely stopped technological process and, accordingly, the minimum amount of energy supply that cannot be stopped due to the specifics of production. Such equipment includes security systems: emergency ventilation, communications, burglar and fire alarms.
According to Andrey Vagner, Director General of PJSC T Plus, Russian Chrome’s debt for electricity today is 267 million rubles. Moreover, the top manager called the enterprise an ideological non-payer, payments from which are received only on writ of execution.
“We are not going to write off the debts of such enterprises as Russian Chrome, because in any case there are always mechanisms of influence. We have greatly tightened relations with them, today this is being implemented strictly through the judicial phase. “Russian Chrome” hides behind the imperfection of the methodology and uses the position of an unswitched enterprise. He has a very high value of technological armor. Now, at the level of relevant ministries, we are engaged in changing the mechanisms for calculating and justifying technological armor. After we reduce it to a normal level, the situation will change.”– Andrey Wagner noted during a press conference.
Recall that at the end of 2021, the volume of the plant’s obligations to the energy company was estimated at 132 million. Then, after another threat of shutdown, a debt repayment schedule was drawn up between the parties, however, apparently, it was never executed “chrome”.
Representatives of Russian Chrome itself deny the existence of any debt to Energosbyt Plus JSC. “All obligations to pay for electricity are fulfilled in full. There is no debt,” the company’s press service said.
It should be noted that there have already been precedents for reducing technological armor in relation to large non-payers abusing the non-switchable status.
So, at the end of 2020, Energosbyt Plus JSC proved in the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region that the level of energy armor of Vysokogorsky Mining and Processing Plant OJSC in Nizhny Tagil was illegally overestimated.
Last year, its debt was nine months deep and amounted to about 800 million rubles, in the second half of the year the company began to correct the situation, and now its debt is 220 million rubles.
Over the past year, Russian Chrome 1915 JSC has significantly improved its financial performance. According to the Kontur.Focus system, the company’s revenue in 2021 increased from 3.326 to 3.429 billion rubles. At the same time, the company showed a net profit of 1.2 million rubles against a loss of 332 million rubles in 2020.
The editors will continue to monitor developments.