He told the public broadcaster LRT that no business wants to increase its losses because sooner or later it will end up in bankruptcy. A temporary suspension, looking into the situation and investing in new resources is a more logical solution than working and eventually going bust. Janulevicius said more businesses may follow suit, as prices for energy resources continue to rise.
Achema has suspended its operations from September to December because of high gas prices, making its fertilizer products uncompetitive.
The company plans to lay off 5 percent of its workforce, with the rest going to be furloughed.
According to Janulevicius, efforts must be made to prevent sudden price hikes on the electricity market, such as the one in mid-August, when businesses spent as much electricity in two hours as they would normally do in two days.
In the evening of August 17 the wholesale electricity price in the Lithuanian bidding area of the Nord Pool power exchange hit a new record high of 4,000 euro per megawatt-hour MWh.