A French public prosecutor is seeking the liquidation of zinc-lead plant Metaleurop Nord, a wholly owned subsidiary of French group Metaleurop, after no buyers emerged.
Company lawyers said the Bethune commercial court was expected to rule on March 10th.
The viability of the plant has been questionable since Jan. 17th when Metaleurop cut off financing after shareholders objected to its heavy losses.
A French court then placed the plant under legal administration for three months to give it a last chance to stave off bankruptcy. The deadline to find a buyer was Feb. 18, but none was found.
The Noyelles-Godault site is Europe's largest lead refinery with 140,000 metric tons per year of capacity and a 90,000 metric tons per year zinc smelter.
Metaleurop has sold all its lead inventories and less than 1,500 metric tons of zinc are stockpiled at the plant, which stopped all production on Jan. 27.
"We have a site which lost $165,400 per day in 2002 and which needs significant investment to start running again and deal with environmental issues. It was (to be expected) that a third party would not want to get mixed up with this," Eric Rouvroy, one of the receivers.
The receivers also asked for the parent Metaleurop SA group's assets to be attached, which if granted would oblige the group to pay off Metaleurop Nord's debts. Reuters
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