Steel industry unconvinced by Treasury Minister's restructuring proposals

The Treasury has launched a bid to take over responsibility for the steel se ctor from the Economy Ministry. "We cannot go on like this, with the Economy Ministry supervising the sector and the Treasury Ministry privatizing it," T reasury Minister Wieslaw Kaczmarek commented. Kaczmarek also said he support s expanding the scope of the steel sector restructuring so that the new Pols kie Huty conglomerate would consist of not only the Katowice, Sendzimira, Ce dler and Florian steelworks, but also other companies in the sector. Industr y insiders, however, are not convinced by the plan. Former chairman of Huta Katowice, Miroslaw Wrobel, supports the idea of privatizing the plants indiv idually. Another expert quoted by Puls Biznesu suggests using the example of other countries. "British Steel, once a private company, was nationalized. T he government carried out the restructuring, then the concern was privatized ," the anonymous insider said. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7) M.T.