Hrazdan Cement Company released from 510 mln AMD fine

Minister of Economy Karen Chshmaritian informed that total debt of the company is around 1 bln AMD, the company's accounts are frozen, and property pledged in VTB Armenia. "Approval of this decision will 

let to free the accounts and property of the company, and in case successful implementation of the program, approved by the bank, to pay off the debts, create new jobs and continue payments for the 

credits", he noted. According to the Minister financial-economic condition of the company worsened during the years of crisis, when at the result of slackening rates of construction in Armenia, the company operated in non stable regime with frequent dead times. 

 

To note, as of February 1 2016 the company's debt totaled 933.3 mln AMD. Currently the company works on enlargement of the production. According to the company's' program the annual amount of cement 

production should be reached to 200 thousand tons (23.3 thousand tons in 2014, 80 thousand tons in 2015) and new job places should be created. As a result according to the company's forecast 700 mln AMD of taxes will be paid to the state budget. 

 

Earlier it was reported that the debt of the Hrazdan - cement plant to the tax authorities amounts to AMD 509 million.  As earlier the head of the company Naira Martirosyan informed ArmInfo, out of total 

amount of debt only AMD 141 million is on the actual tax of the company and the rest of AMD 367 million is the accumulated amount due 

to late payment of tax penalties and fines. "Company paid taxes in the amount of AMD 2.9 bln within the 2008-2014, however, due to a prolonged crisis, the problems with the export and domestic construction downturn, the company loses money and can not pay taxes", - said Martirosyan. She noted that the company does not refuse payment thereof by contacting a request to the relevant structures of the debt restructuring, which was denied.

 

It should be noted that the company "Hrazdan cement" (formerly "Mika Cement") is created on the basis of "Hrazdan cement plant", which was launched in 1970 as a structural unit of "Hrazdan mining and chemical plant", which in 1977 was transformed into "Hrazdan cement factory".  The company's product was used in Armenia in almost all construction sites and areas of importance and was largely exported to the Transcaucasian countries and to Russia.

 

In the 90s the plant was practically not functioning. In 2001 President of MIKA Armenia Mikhail Bagdasarov privatized the plant.  In the same year, the factory was renamed into "Mika-Cement" CJSC.  

Later, the plant was handed over to VTB Bank (Armenia) against debt.  The cement plant was reopened in July 2014 thanks credit received from VTB Bank (Armenia). The plant specializes in production of about 10 brands of Portland cement. The company is located in the town of Hrazdan on an area of 540 thousand square meters. The plant has two production lines with a designed capacity of 1.2 million tons of cement and 1 mln ton of clinker per year.