RIGA, June 17 (LETA) - Most residents of Latvia's southwestern port city of Liepaja, or 73.9 percent, want the former territory of Liepajas Metalurgs steel company to be made a public open space with modern production facilities, shows a survey conducted by Liepaja Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and liepajniekiem.lv web portal.

Meanwhile, nearly a third of respondents in the poll, or 23.1 percent, would like the area to be a closed territory with a metallurgical plant, and 3 percent believe that the territory should be used for some other purposes. 

A vast majority of the polled Liepaja residents, or 91.8 percent, agreed that the former Liepajas Metalurgs territory should be used to develop modern and efficient industrial production with high-skilled jobs and competitive salaries. 

Also, 90.4 percent of respondents agreed that production on this territory should be environmentally friendly, without harmful emissions and a negative impact on the environment and local residents' health and wellbeing.

The survey revealed that 62.6 percent of respondents would not like ferrous metal industry to return to the former Liepajas Metalurgs territory, while 25.5 percent think otherwise. 

Liepaja SEZ and liepajniekiem.lv conducted the survey from June 4 to 8, polling 2,157 residents of Liepaja. 

In March 2018, Austrian company Smart Stahl GmbH bought the rolling mill of the insolvent Latvian steel company KVV Liepajas Metalurgs at the auction on March 20. Smart Stahl GmbH had won the auction by offering EUR 1.57 million (VAT excluded) or EUR 1.9 million (VAT included).

Liepajas Metalurgs metallurgical plant based in the Liepaja port city in south-western Latvia was first declared insolvent after it failed to repay a state-guaranteed loan to an Italian bank. The government sold the plant to Ukrainian investors, KVV Group, in late 2014.

Liepajas Metalurgs was renamed KVV Liepajas Metalurgs and officially re-opened on March 6, 2015, but soon started having problems again and was once more declared insolvent in September 2016.