Wahome spends 800 m cedis a month on electricity
Tema (Greater Accra) 10 September 2001 - Wahome Steel Company which supplies over 50 per cent of the country's iron rods requirement, has since July last year suffered from lack of raw materials, especially billets which are imported, Mr. Asamoah Mensah, Managing Director disclosed on Friday.
He said the company needed about two million dollars to bring in raw materials to enable it to start full production, adding that part of this money would be used for debt servicing.
Mensah, who was conducting Osei Kwaku, Deputy Minister of Presidential Affairs round the factory at Tema, following representations from the Local Union and Senior Staff Association about the closure of the factory for the past week, mentioned circumstances that led to the financial loss of the company.
These include the low capacity utilisation of materials, high interest rates on loans, the drop in exchange rates and the energy crises in 1998.
Mensah said the company owes the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to the tune of 1.2 billion cedis, and, "we were able to pay about 200 million cedis, but they disconnected power last week, even though we have promised to pay them in phases."
He disclosed that Wahome spent 800 million cedis a month previously on electricity, however, under the new tariff, it will cost the company 1.2 billion cedis, and suggested that since the factory is the third highest consumer of power, they need to get direct supply from the Volta River Authority (VRA).
Mensah said the company still retains its 370 workers, because, "we have no money to declare redundancy," and as at now, staff salaries are in four months in arrears.
Osei Kwaku noted that even though Wahome has a great potential which if properly assessed could lead to its expansion to employ more workers in the streets, it has not been properly managed.
He called on the shareholders to convene an emergency meeting soon to find a solution to the numerous problems, adding that it would be sad to allow the company to collapse.
GRi../
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Accra (Greater Accra) 10 September 2001 - All major market indices on the Ghana Stock Exchange closed flat on Monday as the bourse failed to sustain Friday's active trading that saw nearly three million shares changing hands.
The GSE-All Share index, the key market measure, marked time to finish trading at 953.26.
Traded volumes slumped to close at 20,900 as the market relapsed from Friday's active trading during which 2.7 million shares changed hands following huge sales in SSB Bank and Unilever shares.
Only five out of the 22 listed equities sold shares on Monday as institutional investors shied away from the bourse. There were no price changes.
Market capitalisation was also unchanged at Friday's level of 3,858.96 billion cedis. Below are the closing prices of the listed equities in cedis:
ABL 630
AGC 18,500
ALW 4,300
BAT 600
CFAO 60
EIC 2,900
FML 1,000
GBL 1,300
GCB 1,550
GGL 900
HFC 952
MGL 240
MLC 130
MOGL 20,000
PAF 805
PBC 450
PZ 700
SCB 21,000
SPPC 356
SSB 2,300
UNIL 2,000
CMLT 430
GRi../
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