OREANDA-NEWS. March 17, 2011. The Moldovan government has approved the amendments to the legislation aimed at breaking the monopoly of the ferrous and nonferrous metals scrap sale and export activity. Valerii Lazar, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Moldova said the amendments stipulate the change of the order and conditions of the issue of licenses for sale and export of scrap metal and fixing of the clear, transparent and non-discriminating licensing terms on the legislative level.

Particularly, the clause, under which the license for sale and export of ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap was issued on a competitive basis is to be annulled. Valerii Lazar specified that in current conditions, only the public company Metalferos was engaged in the export of iron-and-steel scrap until now, regularly winning the contests for obtaining licenses for sale and export and ferrous and nonferrous metal scrap, and, so, was per se a legalized monopolist in this sector.

Valerii Lazar said the point of the amendments is to permit others to be engaged in scrap metal export, but with a strict control of the state over this activity to ensure the energy and industrial security. He said the right for selling and exporting ferrous and nonferrous metal scrap would be received by all economic agents, which will have a license for picking and storage of ferrous and nonferrous materials scrap, possess special areas, storages of at least 400 square meters, own capital of at least 4 million leis, with 2 million leis – the authorized capital

At the same time, the payment for the issue of the license will be increased from 2.5 thousand leis to 100 thousand leis. The license will be valid for 5 years. The Minister of Economy said 7 companies currently meet the offered new licensing conditions. The net profit of the Metalferos company in 2010 totaled 82 million leis.

According to Valerii Lazar, due to the crisis at the Moldovan Steel Works, which started in 2008, the Metalferos company hasn’t supplied scrap metal to this enterprise over the recent years but exported it to Turkey and other countries, using the Giurgiulesti port for that.