It will remain in the refrigerator for another fourth year, but is subsidized state budget, LARCO mining industry, despite the fact that the relevant tender for its sale and the entry of a strategic investor has been completed since last year, and the demand for nickel at the international level is high. The troubled business cost Greek taxpayers $5.77 billion, according to a recent study.

The new extension means that, in addition to the financial burden of about 1.5 million a month to pay fixed-term contracts, some 900 workers (who have been fired and compensated since last year but continue to work without purpose as the industry no longer produces anything) ), the state is likely to continue to pay fines imposed on it European Court for non-repayment of state subsidies to LARCO. Now, with the announcement of the elections ante portas, the Ministry of Finance has passed a resolution in the form of a bill that provides for another extension of the Special Directorate, this time “bravely”, until February 7, 2024. citing the time required, he claims, to “complete the sale of the assets of LARCO and the Greek state to an investor that emerged following the successful completion of two parallel tender procedures conducted by the Special Administration and TAIPED.” In addition, the Ministry of Finance extended until the end of 2023 the possibility of concluding fixed-term employment contracts with the company’s employees.

Plan

But while workers are being paid out of work as the industry has long been shut down, market circles are seeing a significant loss in revenue due to the fact that investors’ business plan to gradually ramp up production of ferronickel and nickel sulphate does not advance to 20,000 tons per year. Nickel sulfate is a raw material for the production of batteries by the automotive industry, and its price is not inferior to pure nickel and is clearly higher than that of ferronickel. Given the transition of the automotive industry to electrification, as well as the continued growth in demand for energy storage, demand is expected to remain strong in the long term, setting the stage for the company to return to healthy profitability.

Instead, the process, which began at the beginning of 2020, has been extended until February 2024, when the search for a strategic investor (GEC TERNA joint venture – AD Holdings) will be completed. In this way, LARCO becomes a perpetual monument to the failure of the Greek state, as its state-run operations are estimated to have cost Greek taxpayers $5.77 billion in constant 2015 prices over the period 1989 to 2019. a study by the Center for Humanitarian Research (KEFIM), published in early February 2023. In 2020, LARCO owed about 480 million euros in arrears, mainly to state-owned enterprises and organizations (DEKOs). From 2008 to 2019, LARCO showed profits for only three years (2010, 2011 and 2016), and losses for the remaining nine years, while the total losses of the period exceeded 600 million euros, according to the authors of the KEFIM study, Professors Giorgos. Bitros and Konstantinos Saravakos. According to the European Court of Justice, if the Greek state does not proceed with the collection of illegal state aid for the period 2008-2011 from LARCO, then it will be obliged to pay an amount of 65.7 million euros as a general fine, and for every six months to 5.5 million euros will be added to this amount. Opera and so it happened.

In this regard, the company was transferred to the Special Administration, and with the help of tenders conducted by the Special Administrator on the one hand, and TAIPED on the other, a strategic investor was found. Both TAIPED and Special Management, which jointly offered to lease and sell, respectively, the assets, as well as mining rights and other LARCO rights, had previously entered into tenders with the aforementioned joint venture.