Thousands of people call for restart of operation in Liberty Ostrava steelworks

Thousands of people took part in a protest rally outside the Liberty Ostrava steelmaker on Thursday calling for the restart of operations. Most of the plant’s 6,000 workers have been at home since December 22, 2023, when the company’s energy supplier TAMEH Czech suspended energy supplies and declared insolvency.

The company, which has an annual capacity of 3.6 million metric tons of steel, is part of the Liberty Steel group owned by commodities tycoon Sanjeev Gupta and primarily serves the construction, engineering and oil and gas industries.

A regional court in Ostrava in December declared a three-month moratorium on all Liberty Ostrava debt repayments and appointed a restructuring trustee.