Odesa port-side chemical plant, whose repeated sale failed due to a lack of buyers, could be halted due to loss-making operation under the current market conditions or transferred to management to a company, which has cheap gas resources, Head of the State Property Fund (SPF) Ihor Bilous has said.

"There are several options: we could stop the plant, because it is unprofitable, or it could be transferred to the company with gas until the market conditions improve," he told reporters in Kyiv.

Bilous added that, according to experts, the market is likely to improve in 2019.

"We have to decide: either we work and bear losses or we halt the plant and wait for better times. If we do not find a solution, the supervisory board will vote in favor of stopping the plant," Bilous said.

He also admitted the possibility of another attempt to privatize the enterprise.