Pilsen Steel, a manufacturer of ship and power plant shafts, rotors for wind turbines and castings for gas turbines, was in the past one of the largest in its field in the world and reported a profit of several billion crowns a year. Last year, the Max Aicher Pilsen company took over the torso of the Pilsen Steel business, which had a turnover of almost three quarters of a billion crowns in 2017. Production was not fully resumed after 2019.
“What surprised me was the fact that the demise of the Pilsen steelworks does not really matter to the locals. They just didn’t build a relationship with the smelter, which was here for 150 years, “he says industrial photographer Viktor Mácha, who was the corporate photographer Pilsen Steel in 2009–2012. According to Mácha, the end of Pilsen Steel means, among other things, the end of large fittings in Bohemia.
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In June 2019, 87 creditors filed for insolvency proceedings, stating that the company owed them 9.4 billion crowns. At that time, the administrator denied about 7.8 billion crowns, including the claims of the three largest creditors – the Russian banks Vněšekonombanka, VEB Kapital and the International Investment Bank. Banks are sued for claims in incidental disputes. Vněšekonombanka and VEB Kapital also agreed with the sale of Pilsen Steel as the largest collateral, ie mortgage creditors.
The former smelters and forges of Škoda Plzeň were bought 20 years ago by the Russian engineering and metallurgical group OMZ, and since 2010 Russian entrepreneur Igor Šamis has owned a 100% business share in the company.
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