Skopje | 08 January 2009 | Balkan Insight
Two of Macedonia’s biggest factories, Maksteel and the pipe factory October 11 have been forced to halt their production due to gas shortages resulting from the Russia-Ukraine dispute.
If the crisis with the Russian gas continues, nearly 2000 workers at the two plants could be faced with forced leave.
“Maksteel is not working. The systems are reduced to a minimum only for maintenance”, factory manager Aleksandar Panov told local Utrinski Vesnik daily on Thursday.
The situation is identical in the October 11 pipe factory, the newspaper reports.
On New Year's Day Russia’s gas export monopoly Gazprom cut all supplies for Ukraine's domestic use in a row over gas prices, creating a knock-on effect for Europe which receives one fifth of its gas from pipelines through Ukraine.
According to law, all companies in Macedonia must have an alternative power source secured for emergencies, and all heating plants across the country that usually operate on gas have already switched to oil derivatives.
Experts say Macedonia is not that badly affected as gas is not widely used in households. But the shutdown in production of these major industrial units is impact domestic growth already dampened by the global financial crisis.
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