Artemsil, Europe's largest salt company, shut down in April due to hostilities. The stock of finished products was taken out in April.
This was told to Free Radio by acting director of Artemsil State Enterprise Viktor Yurin.
"The company is not working, idle, according to the order, indefinitely. The shelling is constant; the administrative building is partially destroyed. There were direct hits in the salt mines and material composition. The production process is impossible. We will not endanger people. Moreover, most of the residents of Soledar, employees of Artemsil, have already been evacuated. Most of the administration employees, engineering and technical workers are not on site,"- said the head of the company.
According to him, no one was injured or killed.
Yurin explained that the plant was shut down in April because exporting of the finished products from Soledar by rail became impossible.
"Our Salt hub, where we hauled cars from our driveways, is regularly shelled. "Artemsil" is mainly focused on the shipment of products by rail. We can export only a small part by road. Therefore, even under normal circumstances, we need to ship the extracted salt to something (in railway cars, - ed.) And if the railway does not work, we also can not, in fact, "- he explained.
According to him, the stock of finished products from Artemsil was taken out in April.
The head of Artemsil believes that Ukraine will now have to import more salt from abroad.
"For salt to be on sale, it should be done. Some stores probably have. I met in Kyiv, in Vinnytsia. Turkish and Romanian salt has appeared … While the fighting is going on, it will have to be replaced with the imported one,†he added.
According to him, the stop of Artemsil will be felt by consumers abroad as well.
"We were the largest salt company in Europe. Our regular customers include Hungary, Poland, Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Romania,†Yurin added.
