Bosnia’s sole aluminium producer, the struggling Aluminij d.d. Mostar, will not file for bankruptcy for another six months, the chairman of its Supervisory Board, Zdenko Klepic, said on Monday.

Klepic said that the decision was made on Friday at a telephone session of the government of the Federation (FBiH), the semi-autonomous entity within Bosnia where the company is located. Nobody will be able to block Aluminij’s accounts for the next half a year.

The company, which employs some 900 people, has been recording losses for years, which now amount to 400 Bosnian Marks (some €204 million). Its electricity debt end of June this year was some 293 million Bosnian Marks (about €150 million).

Management and workers warned that should the production stop, it would effectively mean the end of the company. They said that the liquid aluminum in the electrolytic cells would “freeze up”, and that it costs about €90,000 per cell to make them work again. Aluminij has 256 electrolytic cells.

Aluminij seized production in the night between Tuesday and Wednesday last week after being disconnected from the power grid due to its high debt.

Despite all that, Klepic said that analyses published recently showed that it is possible to begin producing again in a short timeframe. He pointed out that those findings show that it makes economic sense to continue production, adding that he hopes part of the workers will soon return to their jobs.

Klepic on Monday participated in a meeting between representatives of the management board, the worker’s union of Aluminij, Dragan Covic, the leader of the main Croat party in the country, the Croat Democratic Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina (HDZ BiH) and Jelka Milicevic, the FBiH Finance Minister.

The company is seen as having been under the control of the HDZ, which is why last week the workers protested in front of the HDZ headquarters in Mostar.

The protesters blame the party for the collapse of the factory. They yelled “thief” and threw bottles and cans at Covic as he was leaving the building. One of the workers publicly ripped his party membership card in protest.

Covic said after the meeting on Monday that he bears no responsibility for what happened in the company.

“There is no personal, moral or any other kind of responsibility with me,” he said, stressing that Aluminij’s management said that he never told anybody what to do in the company.

“Someone will have to answer to what they did in Aluminij,” he said.

He said that some have “siphoned off millions from the company” and are now trying to protect their positions, but that soon everything will be revealed.

“Damage was done, and that damage is still incalculable. We will see everything once we check what has been done in Aluminij throughout the past 20 years. Our commitment is for Aluminij to have a future and we need to commit to it to the end so that we respond to all these social issues and so that every individual is protected,” he said.