Stellantis, Melfi 86 million investment for energy efficiency
Two projects, but the unions are calling for an agreement to safeguard the Lucania pole - By December, 500 will join the incentive exit plan, 5,000 employees will remain, back to 2015
3' min read
3' min read
Two interventions to improve energy efficiency at the Stellantis plant in Melfi, for a total of EUR 86 million. The announcement came during a meeting between the unions and the company, which illustrated the two projects. The first, of about 70 million, to build a 50 megaWatt photovoltaic plant, the second for a biogas plant (17 million) of 6 megaWatts and 500 m3/h of gas produced, which will be fuelled with agricultural and undergrowth waste.
The aim of the two interventions is to cut energy costs and increase energy efficiency at the Group's Lucania plant. For the biogas plant, the trade unions report, after the completion of the authorisation process, a completion date of December 2025 and start-up in April 2026 is envisaged. Instead, as far as the photovoltaic plant is concerned, tenders are underway.
"As trade unions, in the face of such an important investment for the Melfi plant, which goes in the direction of reducing energy costs and CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, we have demanded the need for employment and production guarantees, with certain prospects for the future of the Melfi industrial site,' write Fim, Fiom and Uilm, together with Ugl, Fismic and Quadri.
At the centre of the dialogue between the company and the unions are the production volumes in Melfi, the plant that is losing more volumes in Italy than ever before. The Fim Cisl report reveals that from January to September, production at the plant dropped by 61.9 per cent, thus almost 90 thousand fewer cars in a single year. In Melfi, Stellantis has assigned the Stla Medium platform where the new models in the range will be produced, in electric and hybrid versions.
Of the 54,240 cars produced up to September, 34% were the 500X - a model whose production has been halted - 28% the Jeep Renegade and 38% the Jeep Compass. In the next few months, therefore, the models that have reached 'end of line' are destined to record a further drop in volumes, while the first DS - the first of the five new models in the programme - is passing through the lines and the preparation of the new Jeep Compass is being completed, which will also go on trial on the production lines in a few weeks' time.
