Vojany thermal power plant to start unit 6 by end of May

Electricity generator Slovenské Elektrárne (SE) will re-launch unit 6 of its thermal power plant at Vojany in the Košice region, which caught fire on April 14, by the end of May.

The starting date for unit 5, which was more severely damaged by the fire, is not yet known. The fire broke out in a turbine in the power plant shortly after 21:00 on April 14.
 Economy Minister Ľubomír Jahnátek said at a press conference the day after the outage that units 5 and 6 had been put in “cold storage”. As many Slovak companies are operating at a reduced level at the current time there is sufficient electrical power on the Slovak market.

This is a temporary phenomenon. Of course, when industry is running at full steam we'll feel the lack of this generator.

 

Slovak economy to shrink by 0.9% in 2009

Slovakia's economy is heading for a contraction of 0.9 percent this year, claims Irish market-research consultancy Research and Markets, whose economic forecast for the country in 2009 is still considerably more upbeat than that of the Slovak central bank (NBS).

“We don't believe that Slovakia will avoid a recession and predict that the country's gross domestic product will fall by a real 0.9 percent in 2009,” Research and Markets says in its report on the Slovak banking sector in the first quarter of 2009.

The latest NBS forecast published two weeks ago forecast that Slovakia’s GDP would shrink by 2.4 percent in 2009. According to the Irish company, a reduction in foreign demand and falling consumer confidence will have a major impact on exports and household consumption. Research and Markets expects the Slovak economy to recover next year, with GDP growth of 2 percent. 

PKO damaged by demolation work

The owner of the Bratislava Culture and Leisure Park (PKO), Henbury Deveploment, s.r.o., is continuing work to repair the exterior and interior parts of the venue’s Vaudeville Hall which was damaged during short-lived demolition works on April 14.

The investor was thereby fulfilling a pledge given in return for the city council prolonging the validity of the company’s demolition permit, which was originally due to expire April 19, 2009. The city had asked the Construction Office of the Bratislava Old Town district to prolong the licence until the end of 2011; Old Town Mayor Andrej Petrek signed a new licence, valid until the end of 2011, on April 15.

PKO was built between 1940 and 1948. In 1975, steel pavilions were added. PKO is a famous venue for the Bratislava Jazz Days, balls, concerts, exhibitions, and university events. Henbury bought the site from the city in 2005 and started demolition work on the morning of April 14, 2009, but the work was halted after council intervention.

Slovak banks need no state aid 

Slovakia is a country whose banking sector is among the least affected by the current global financial crisis.    

The sector enjoys high profits and liquidity, stable interest rates from credits – including those on the interbank market – as well as the low exposure of Slovak banks to risk assets.           

The Slovak banking sector was highly profitable in 2008, with sufficient liquidity and without any need for special state aid programmes.                                                                               

The risk that Slovak banks face the most now concerns the ability of enterprises to settle their debts stemming from loans.                                                                                              

According to the ministry, the initiative lays the groundwork for providing possible stabilisation aid to a bank afflicted by the global crisis. The assistance would feature the state depositing financial assets into a bank's basic capital, or it could be a state guarantee for bonds issued by the bank or a loan provided to the bank.

Industrial employment drops 10 percent in February

Industrial employment in Slovakia shrank 10 percent y-o-y in February 2009.
The number of employees in the wholesale sector also fell by 19.8 percent, in restaurants and pubs by 14.5 percent, in sales and repairs of motor vehicles by 8.6 percent, in accommodation services by 4.6 percent, and in retail business and selected market services, each by 2 percent. Employment went up 6.6 percent y-o-y in construction, 6.1 percent in postal services,information and communication and 5.7 percent in transport.
In the first two months of 2009, 541,800 people worked in the industrial sector, of which 490,800 were in manufacturing. The construction sector reported a labor force of 183,000 people, the retail sector of 158,200 people, selected market services of 126,500 people, and wholesale of 110,000 people. 98,000 people worked in transport, 55,900 in postal services, information and communications, 33,500 in restaurants and pubs, 23,900 in car sales and repairs, and 10,800 in accommodations.

Around 3,500 cars already registered for stage II scrapping bonus

More than 3,500 cars had already been registered for the scrapyard contribution programme, according to Car Industry Association data released on Monday, April 6 - the day when the second round of the programme designed to see old cars replaced with new ones began.   

This could mean that the budget earmarked by the government for 22,100 vehicles will last for only a few days. The first round lasted from March 9 to March 25 and €33.2 million was spent; the Government decided last week to up the amount of money by an additional €22.1 million. The rules for the second round are different.

 

The second round of the car-scrapping 

The government is to allocate €22.1 million to a second round of the so-called car-scrapping bonus, due to be launched on Monday, April 6.This involves state support for people who scrap an old car and replace it with a new one.However, the rules for the second round are different from the first. The state will contribute €1,000 if the seller [of the new car] provides €1,000. In the first round, which took lasted from March 9 and March 25, the basic contribution from the state was €1,000, but if car dealers contributed another €500, the state subsidy was increased to €1,500. The maximum value of a new car for which the measure applies will remain at €25,000.The second round of the car-scrapping bonus will be the last one.As many as 672 cars were scrapped in the first round in the period immediately after the budget allocation had been used up. The 2,400 applicants who took their cars to scrapyards or took them home but were put on a waiting list on Wednesday or Thursday will also come under the provisions for the first round.

British investment brings jobs to Veľký Meder

The British company RPC Bramlage plans to invest €1.255 million into production of plastic materials in Veľký Meder, a municipality in the Dunajská Streda district. The investment should create 88 job positions.                                                                                                 

The company has already transmitted in its investment plan for an Environmental Impact Assessment. They plan to start production as early as the end of April 2009, as a successor to the DM Plast company.     

RPC Bramlage was forced to close its plant in the Netherlands due to the global economic crisis and moved eastwards, to Slovakia. The company focuses on production of packages for the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and food industry.

Henkel Slovensko to create 150 new jobs in Bratislava

Producer Henkel Slovensko has decided to expand its Shared Services Centre in Bratislava.

The centre should create 150 new jobs within the next two years. Company director Juraj Lackovič said that it will be possible to expand the centre only if the company manages to find an additional 150 professionals with language skills. Mayor of Bratislava Andrej Ďurkovský said that this move is completely in line with the local authority's goal of boosting Bratislava's role as a knowledge-based city. He promised that city officials will co-operate in the project. Lackovič also said that the company's latest project is to set up a Purchase Competence Centre in Bratislava that will co-ordinate purchases of direct and indirect materials and logistics, while concentrating mainly on Western Europe. The company established its service centre in Bratislava in 2007. The centre manages selected financial and accounting operations for the company in 23 countries including the US and Canada. The goal is to extend this service to 25 countries.

Nitra River redirected for an area  extraction of brown coal

The flow of the Nitra River was redirected to a new river bed in Opatovce nad Nitrou in the district of Prievidza on March 24. The redirection was made to open up an area for extraction of brown coal, used for energy purposes. The redirection will enable the mining company Hornonitrianske Bane of Prievidza to continue extracting coals for several more years and give jobs to about 4,000 people in the region.                                                                  

The current investment amounts to €36.513 million. The new river bed is 1,850 meters long and it has been moved by 500 to 700 meters from the old one. There are about ten million tonnes of geological reserves of brown coal in this extraction field on an area of 153 hectares, of which 7.2 million tonnes can be mined. The mining company should extract 400,000 to 600,000 tonnes annually.                                                                                                      

Retail chains prefer foreign dairy products

Slovak milk and dairy products should be more widely represented on the shelves of large retail chains doing business in Slovakia, according to the Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber (SPPK). Milan Semančík, provided the results of a supply-chain survey it conducted at Tesco hypermarkets, at the Lidl discount chain and at CO-OP Jednota stores in Bratislava between March 10 and 17.
The survey showed that only 41.9 percent of total dairy products in the stores were domestically produced. This could be one of the reasons why milk consumption is low in Slovakia, one of the lowest in the EU.

SPPK found that the lowest share of Slovak dairy products was in Lidl stores – just 19.5 percent, with German and Czech products making up as much as 63.7 percent.At the same time, domestic dairy products in Lidl stores in the Czech Republic made up 47.2 percent of the total, with Slovak products reaching only 3.5 percent. The current practices of large retail chains are increasing Slovakia's negative trade balance for agricultural and food commodities, which rose by 15.3 percent last year. 

Scrap yards

Slovakia's 28 licensed scrap yards took in 1,500 old cars for scrap last week. The Economy Ministry's scrapping subsidy program could be in place for at least eight weeks. The demand for new cars, especially less expensive models, has increased, but that ZAP will release hard sales figures later this week.The Government will be assessing the cost-effectiveness of its program in which car owners who scrap cars manufactured before December 31, 1999 can receive a subsidy of up to €2,000 when buying a new car. This will be completed after the total authorised subsidy amount has been used up, said Economy Minister Ľubomír Jahnátek, who didn't rule out the possibility that the subsidy program could be extended. 

Two more companies announce layoffs

 

Two more companies have announced planned layoffs in the Nové Zámky district that will make 40 and 29 people redundant. Both companies are Slovak and are involved in engineering. Their names didn´t are specify as the office didn´t  have their ‘permission’.

The Nové Zámky district registers 335 job openings. At the end of January, the number of registered job seekers reached 6,100. The unemployment  was 8.31 percent.

The clothing company Sariana Slovensko (formerly Trikota), based in Šaľa, decided to shut down its production of underwear and lay off all 120 employees. Employees signed agreements to terminate their job contracts, which are not deemed an organizational reason, thus these will not be mass layoffs. The office filed a motion to investigate whether the company had violated the law by handling the situation in this way

New flights from Poprad-Tatry Airport coming soon

After an absence of six years, the Poprad-Tatry airport will again have direct flight connections with Bratislava.
In cooperation with Danube Wings airline, the airport will launch new regular flights beginning March 29, with five flights weekly from Poprad-Tatry to Bratislava. A direct air connection with Bologna will also be introduced. Travellers can also use the Poprad-Basel connection by changing in Bratislava.

In the summer, regular flights by SkyEurope from Poprad to London will continue three times a week – on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Direct connections with other holiday destinations, including Hurghada in Egypt and Split in Croatia will be added to traditional charter flights from Poprad to Burgas in Bulgaria. Danube Wings will fly to Split from June to September directly from Poprad.
Poprad-Tatry airport went through some revamping in 2008, including the construction of a new arrival terminal. The new premises increased the capacity from the original 150 passengers to 250 and improved its passenger handling quality.

Public banks to be strengthened

The Slovak economy is the best off in terms of economic growth among central European countries, said Vojtech Ferencz from the Economy Ministry.
Is concluded that private banks in Slovakia drain financial means from the market, restrict business development, and therefore the Monitoring Committee will request the further strengthening of Eximbank and the Slovak Guarantee and Development Bank on the market.
Ferencz said that the Committee supports the so-called ‘scrapyard contribution’ for those who want to get rid of their old cars and buy new ones. The government would provide subsidies to individuals who scrap cars that are more than 10 years old and purchase a new vehicle.The highest number of job vacancies are registered in Bratislava region. The Economy Ministry will begin publishing a page on its website called Crisis in Slovakia, on which it will answer the most-frequently asked questions regarding the crisis, and will also present anti-crisis measures approved by the Slovak government.
The Monitoring Committee was adopted to tackle the global financial crisis. Its task is to map the impacts of the crisis on small and medium-sized businesses, especially with regard to employment, efficiency, demand and export, and also to monitor individual economic sectors.

Second pillar pension funds may help finance highway construction

A key agreement between Prime Minister Robert Fico and private pension fund management companies is in the dealings. Fico appealed to the pension fund management companies on Saturday, February 28, asking them to suggest how they want to help the Slovak economy in the time of economic crisis.
Long-term resources they administer in the pension funds might be invested in Slovakia’s highway construction. They would be able to allocate about €660 million for the highway construction in a relatively short time.
The pension funds could make loans to the state or directly to construction firms. If they lend to the state, about half of the assets of the pension fund management companies would be in state securities.
Fico has not yet given public approval to the idea. He will be meeting with shareholders of the pension fund management companies on the evening of March 3.

A newly estabilished glass manufacturing company Slovglass Ltd

A newly established glass manufacturing company Slovglass Ltd in Poltár in Banská Bystica region will resume production on March 1, which to employ between 450 and 500 workers.
The agreements should be signed and the sale finalised by the end of February. The unspecified buyer from Bratislava, who already manages around 20 companies in Slovakia, will pay €1.6 million for the plant. The factory in Poltár and its subsidiary company in Katarínska Huta, also in Banská Bystrica region, will continue to manufacture glass, although at lower levels than in the past, when Slovglass, Inc. was one of Slovakia’s largest glass manufacturers. The new owners also intend to renew the tradition of glass-blowing in Zlatno near Poltár. The aim of this small-scale manufacturing operation is to support tourism by making the so-called 'glass-makers route' more attractive to tourists.
Slovglass went bankrupt in July 2008 due to the weak American dollar,high energy prices and strong competition from Asia. The previous management wasn’t able to reverse the situation and announced mass layoffs in December 2008.

Slovakia's unemployment rate rose to 9.03 percent in January

The unemployment rate in Slovakia reached 9.03 percent in January.This represents a month-on-month increase of 0.64 percentage points and a year-on-year rise of 0.97 percentage points. The number of officially-registered job seekers reached 269,465 in January.
The highest unemployment rate was recorded in the Rimavská Sobota district in the Banská Bystrica Region at 29.11 percent, while the lowest was registered in the 1st district of Bratislava at 1.53 percent. Between October 2008 and mid-February, 156 mass layoffs were announced to job centres, and 12,154 jobs are currently in danger.According to Sihelský, his office lists 9,117 job vacancies at the moment, mainly for professional workers, craftsmen and printers.
Sihelský noted that the Government has adopted 62 measures aimed at reducing the effects of the global economic crisis. More than 1,100 people who have returned from other EU countries registered themselves at Slovak job centres in January. Most came from the Czech Republic. According to ÚPSVAR's economic and statistics department, further rises in unemployment can be expected in the coming months.

Oil declines on economy worries


Crude oil's price has fallen nearly 7% amid continued weak global demand, and high stock levels in the US.
US light crude was $2.58 lower at $34.93 a barrel in Tuesday trading in New York, while in London Brent crude had lost $2.25 to $41.03 per barrel.
Analysts said the fact Opec had still not fully implemented last year's output cut was another factor. The economic outlook will continue to dominate the first half of 2009.
The United States, eurozone and Japan are in synchronized recession.
Opec is expected to announce further cuts in output after it next meets on 15 March.
Oil prices hit record highs above $147 a barrel last summer, but have fallen back sharply since then as the global economy has suffered.

Peugeot Citroen Slovakia will lay off 190 workers

The biggest investor in the Trnava region, the automotive plant Peugeot Citroen Slovakia(PSA), will give layoff notices to 190 employees between March and December 2009 due to the shrinking sales of cars in the European market.
An additional reason for the layoffs is completion of the start up phase for production of a new model
Employees to get the layoff notes are people from the project team that worked on the production launch of the new Citroen C3. Because PSA is not planning to reduce their automobile output, these layoffs will not affect production workers.
The terminated workers will receive four or five months’ severance pay, depending on their years of service.
The factory will run in two full-time shifts this year, with about 3,000 employees producing a daily output of 850 vehicles. Despite the crisis affecting the entire automotive sector, the company is launching production of its new Citroen C3 Picasso model in its Trnava factory.
PSA is the first automotive plant in Slovakia to announce a mass layoff of employees.