As a result of the Company`s equity offerings, period end andaverage common shares outstanding increased by approximately 276 million and 123million shares, respectively. the city of Miskolc had morethan 200,000 residents, most working in industry. The population has fallen to about 170,000 and unemploymentstands at between 15 and 16 percent, well above the nationalaverage of 9.8 percent. DAM, which survived privatisations in the 1990s and wasrescued after previous liquidations, is being wound up again andis laying off its approximately 700 remaining employees.

The liquidation process started on June 24 and theliquidator Ratis Kft has to put the assets up for sale If it can find an investor, the plant may survive. Jozsef Papp, 53, who has been at DAM for 36 years, said theyhad been idle since late last year. “There have been a few liquidations, and the plant alwayssurvived, but I don’t think this will be the case now,” he toldReuters. Steelmakers throughout Europe have operated at between 55and 60 percent capacity usage rates this year, shelvedinvestment plans and cut jobs to weather the biggest downturn toaffect the industry since World War Two. SOCIAL SCARS Miskolc, Hungary’s second largest city, is finding it hardto cope with soaring unemployment and a lack of new jobs. Agnes Dudas, who heads the employment office in the city,says the number of registered jobless had risen to 18,200 in Mayfrom between 12,000 and 13,000 at the end of last year.

More than half of those losing their jobs at the steel millare aged over 50 and finding new work for them will bedifficult, even though the city receives funds from an EUprogramme partly designed to help crisis-hit regions, she says. “Those who worked at DAM for 30 to 40 years would have neverleft this plant. First they must overcome the trauma of allthis, and it’s very hard,” Dudas says. Miskolc has a Roma population of about 12,000 to 15,000,many of whom used to do unskilled jobs in the steel industry andhave little choice but to rely on social assistance from thegovernment. Hungary’s Roma minority is one of the largest in centralEurope, accounting for between 6 and 7 percent of thepopulation.