Race against time to save a 300 million project and prevent the restart plan of Eurallumina, controlled by Rusal, from being wrecked. In other words, the project to restructure and restart the refinery which until March 2009 in the industrial area of Portovesme dealt with the refining of bauxite, transforming it into alumina oxide, the raw material from which primary aluminum is obtained.
To block the company’s plans for the refinery which, due to its production capacity of 1.07 million tons of alumina per year, is considered by experts to be one of the largest in Europe, there are still some problems to solve. That is the signing of the Addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding. That is, the program of commitments that the company must sign with the Region, Invitalia for program contracts, the ministries of Labour, Made in Italy and the environment, and the trade unions, in which commitments are made for the restart of the establishment.
These are programs that contain an update on the structural solution for the arrival of energy, the commitment of the company’s interventions and the process of layoffs and social shock absorbers connected to the restart of the plant. The signature must arrive by May, when the investor will decide the budget for 2024. Then there is another aspect, which concerns the energy node. That is, the arrival of gas with the Fsru similar to that of Piombino (envisaged by the Dpcm launched by the Draghi government) to be placed in the port area (to be dredged because the seabed is too shallow at present). A solution proposed after a series of projects that ranged from the Galsi to the coal-fired cogeneration plant up to the vapor pipeline with the nearby power plant.
Now the Dpcm is sub iudice to the Council of State and the Region and the government have yet to find an alternative solution before the discussion on the merits postponed in November. And, no less important, the issue of workers because without a restart project based on a new memorandum the workers will not have the right to social safety nets and the specter is that of collective dismissal. Precisely these arguments were at the center of the meeting in the Region which was attended by trade unions, companies and regional administrators.
«The Region wants all Sardinians to be placed on the same level and to be able to enjoy an equalized energy tariff. Similarly, we want workers to be able to resume their position in the company as soon as possible – said the councilors for the Environment, Industry and Labor during the meeting -. For this reason, we are urging the national government to reopen the crisis table on Eurallumina, also in the light of the counter-arguments sent by the company”. Tomorrow, Friday 24 March 2023 in Rome, on the sidelines of the summit on Glencore-Portovesme srl, the Region will meet the government on this dispute.