Gypsum boards maker Etex wants to invest EUR 5 mln at RO coal-fired power plant

Etex Building Performance, a subsidiary of the Belgian group Etex, wants to invest EUR 5-6 million in the Romanian coal-fired power plant Rovinari, part of the troubled Romanian Oltenia Energy Complex (CEO), Profit.ro reported.

Etex wants to build at Rovinari a plant to produce gypsum sludge - raw material for the production of gypsum boards, as the group wants to expand in Southeast Europe. However, such plans depend on CEO's strategy of phasing out the use of coal.

The power group initially accepted the proposal extended by Etex, but it later decided to organize a tender to offer the plaster to the company that will build the drying plant.

"The announcement of the auction was not followed by any other action. (...) Regardless of whether the investment from Rovinari will materialize or not, Etex Building Performance intends to expand the production capacity of gypsum boards in South-Eastern Europe, taking into account other alternative options in the region," says Gheorghe Budrugeac, Etex industrial manager.

Romania's Government signed last November the memorandum for the restructuring of state-owned coal and power group CE Oltenia (CEO) under a five-year program that involves some EUR 2 billion of aid from both state and the European Union's decarbonization program.

However, Greenpeace claims that the plan submitted by the Government to the European Commission is not going to be accepted and the sole solution is phasing out the use of coal by 2025.

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