Expensive energy undermines the production of lead, zinc and steel between Sardinia and Sicily. And in the two islands, where there are no compensatory measures to amortize excessively high energy costs, the high-consumption companies stop their plants and open the cig.
Glencore, skyrocketing energy prices
In Sardinia the most significant case concerns Glencore which operates in the port of Portovesme (in Sulcis Iglesiente) which, with its subsidiary Portovesme srl, produces lead, zinc, gold, silver, copper and sulfuric acid. For some time the company has started a rationalization plan to contain costs, activating the redundancy fund for 400 direct workers. To these are added those of tenders. A choice motivated by the skyrocketing of energy costs, which went from a figure that fluctuated between 40 and 50 euros per megawatt / hour, to figures that today reach 500 euros per megawatt / hour.
A further squeeze
A situation that does not seem destined to improve. It is no coincidence that in recent days, in the context of the meeting with the representatives of Confindustria and the trade unions, the representatives of the company illustrated the conditions in which it operates: absence of compensatory measures to deal with the energy and cig increases in expiration . A shutdown of 80 percent of the plants is also announced as of October 1st, should there be no alternative measures. Which translated, as underlined during the meeting, means social safety nets for 550 direct (which would add up to 600 of the contracts).
The axis with Sicily
Just to face the emergency, in recent days, the Sardinian trade unions, with the corporate Rsu, met the union delegates and the trade union secretariats of reference of the Sicilian group Alfa Acciai where the cost of energy weighs for 40 percent. The meeting with the delegates of Acciaieria Siciliana of the Alfa Acciai group and the respective Territorial Secretariats of reference (chemical and metalworkers) was organized to take stock of the dispute that unites the two activities. And that in the Sicilian case saw the shutdown of the plants in June and July which was followed by the “programming for August, activating solidarity for 250 workers with consequences also on the approximately 250 workers in the related industries”.
The compensatory measures
The situation is determined by the fact that the two regions cannot benefit from the so-called compensatory measures. What was once the so-called super interruptibility from which Sicily and Sardinia are excluded. And the various actions taken to find alternative solutions, such as energy release. Measures still awaiting a solution that have also seen the Confindustria of Sardinia and Sicily mobilize precisely to overcome the difference with the rest of the country.