Employees of "AraratCement" announced a strike and demand a meeting  with Tsarukyan: they are not going to protest outside government  building

ArmInfo.The employees of "AraratCement", owned by MPof the National Assembly Gagik Tsarukyan, announced a strike from early morning. They have closed the roads  leading to the enterprise and are demanding a meeting with Tsarukyan.

As a resident of Ararat and the company's employee Henrikh Khechumyan  told ArmInfo, last Friday they received notice of dismissal, which  they refuse to accept. After two months, the company's employees will  join the army of the unemployed.

Today, the Directorate has justified the layoffs with high production  costs, which makes it impossible to compete in the market with  imported Iranian cement. In addition, the plant management complained  about high import duties on clinker (in the cement industry, an  intermediate product in the production of cement, Ed. note).

According to Khechumyan, they will continue the protest until they  know about the real reasons for the planned dismissals from Gagik  Tsarukyan personally. At the same time, they are not going to block  the highway and, all the more so, do not intend to protest outside  the government building, since they doubt that they are trying to  politicize the issue.

To recall, in February of this year the Ministry of Economic  Development and Investments of the Republic of Armenia has launched  an initiative aimed at protecting domestic cement producers. The head  of the Ministry of Economy Tigran Khachatryan noted that recently,  due to a significant reduction in energy prices in neighboring  countries and as a result of state subsidies of their products, the  volume of cement imports to Armenia has increased significantly (over  the past year - three fold). "As a result, two local companies, whose  production capacities together constitute 2 million tons, cannot  realize even a third of their production capacities," said  Khachatryan. According to him, according to the results of the  research, a decision was made on the need to protect local producers.  In particular, it was decided to establish a duty on imports of 22  thousand drams per ton. As a result, as the Minister noted, prices in  the domestic market will be equalized for domestic and imported  products and a competitive environment will be ensured.  To note, in  2018 cement sales in Armenia amounted to about 680.000 tons, of which  512.000 tons were produced in Armenia, and 168.000 tons were  imported.