Deputies of the Kalush city council adopted an appeal to the President and the government of Ukraine regarding the situation with the Karpatneftekhim enterprise (Kalush, Ukraine), which was on the verge of stopping, the local newspaper Neftekhimik-Kalush reports.

“The Kalush city council is concerned about the situation that is taking shape at Karpatneftekhim LLC and the possible shutdown of the company, which has 2,792 employees. The appeal was supported by all 33 deputies present at the meeting of the extraordinary session of the Kalush City Council, ”the message said.

In their appeal, the deputies note that Karpatneftekhim is one of the largest taxpayers in the Ivano-Frankivsk region and the city of Kalush, so the cessation of production will have a negative impact on the budgets of all levels of the Ivano-Frankivsk region and will lead to a socio-economic explosion in the region.

According to Kalush deputies, “this situation has arisen due to a non-competitive environment for local producers, caused by a sharp increase in imports to Ukraine and dumping prices for caustic soda, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride and a high tariff for rail transportation.”

Therefore, the appeal of the representatives of the highest authorities asked “to take appropriate measures to protect the domestic producer”, namely to conduct a special investigation regarding the import of caustic soda, polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride, regardless of the country of origin and export. Also, Kalush deputies are asking the leadership of the state to consider the possibility of reducing regulated tariffs for rail transportation.

In January, Karpatneftekhim stopped production of low-pressure polyethylene (HDPE) for repairs. The reason for the stop, according to the source, is the high cost of raw materials, which is not even covered by the sale of finished products.

Karpatneftekhim is the only active (as of 2020) polymer producer in Ukraine. In Soviet times, the enterprise was called the Kalush petrochemical concern Oriana (Chlorovinyl, Carpathopolymer). After privatization, Lukoil OJSC (Russia) and Oriana concern (Ukraine) created a joint venture CJSC LUKOR in December 2000, which in 2004 changed its name to LLC Karpatneftekhim. The company’s shares are now owned by two companies, one of which is Techinservice Production Group LLC.

According to Polyglobe (www.polyglobe.ru), the production capacity of Karpatneftekhim is 250 thousand tons of ethylene per year, 300 thousand tons of suspension polyvinyl chloride (PVC-S) per year, 117 thousand tons of propylene per year, 101 thousand tons benzene, 107 thousand tons of high density polyethylene (HDPE) per year.