The agreement for the transfer from Invitalia to Sider Alloys of the former Alcoa plant in Portovesme, in southern Sardinia, was signed with the Ministry of Economic Development. The Swiss group will invest around 140 million euros in total, with subsidies from the Mise and the Sardinia Region for around 94 million.
Minister Carlo Calenda said that “today is not a conclusion, but the beginning of a process. As I clearly told the Alcoa workers – he added – we will celebrate when the first aluminum ingot comes out. Until then there is only work to do”.
Sider Alloys has put on the table the restart of the plants, which have been idle for more than 4 years, the remediation of the underground waters of the Portovesme industrial area and the strengthening of the production structure. The game with the unions on the employment front remains open.
"The Plan illustrated today envisages 135-145 million investments with the support of the program agreement signed last December 22nd - explained the Fim Cisl general secretary Marco Bentivogli - When fully operational once the plants have been restarted, an extremely complex operation should take several months, expect the production of 150 tons of aluminum a year. Now it will be necessary to complete the whole puzzle with the last pieces that are missing, immediately start negotiations with Sider Alloys on the industrial and employment plan and address all the other aspects still open”.
According to the Uilm leader, Rocco Palombella, “there are now the conditions to know the industrial plan. We want to understand which and how many investments, and with what realization times, will be made by the Swiss group as well as wanting to know the employment perimeter of the operation”.
For the Fiom leader, Francesca Re David, “the task of the Mise cannot be said to be complete: it must in fact guarantee the financial compatibility of the operation. In other words, guaranteeing that the Swiss group is able to financially support the acquisition and relaunch of Portovesme. We are in complete darkness on the group's financial strength, just as we are in the dark on the industrial plan that we would have hoped to discuss before finalizing the sale to Sider Alloys and which we must therefore deal with immediately".
