Metallurgical companies close down factories in Aspropyrgos

The steel industry in Greece ends its struggle for survival and begins the countdown to the closure of the Greek group Halyvourgia Manesis and Halyvourgiki, owned by the Constantinos Angelopoulos group in Aspropyrgos in Western Attica.

On Monday, the Greek group Halyvourgia informed the remaining 120 plant employees that it is preparing to lay off all personnel in the Aspropyrgos block in the next few days. The management of the steel company explained to the workers that they are not currently in a position to give them severance pay and will not be able to do so in the coming days and weeks.

Halyvourgiki is determined to stop production at its own plant in Aspropyrgos after March 31st. In addition, the company lacks funds to buy laminated micro-corrugated cardboard and therefore it is not possible to produce packaging of metal products. The ministry and workers' unions asked that a ministerial committee be convened in the presence of the prime minister. The company is pushing for the layoff of 192 of its 255 employees in Aspropyrgos.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said that the two metallurgical companies face a huge energy cost challenge, as do the other major industries in Greece, but "we will present concrete measures to tackle this problem."

The two steel mills have virtually ceased operations in the past two years. Halyvourgia has already cut the bulk of its employees at its Volos plant, which currently employs 370 people.

When domestic demand fell below 300,000 tonnes per year, the bulk of steel production went overseas. Since the beginning of 2013, Greek steel companies have been forced to export, even while suffering losses, in order to maintain sales and not leave their production potential untapped.