Environmentalist Dr Wayne Kublalsingh says Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley would be hard pressed to get the Alutrint smelter going again because the matter is still “before the courts and would require years for recertification.”
Rowley told a meeting in Point Fortin last Wednesday that an aluminium project might be restarted by the People’s National Movement Government once the “economics looked good.”
But he hinted that the project had nothing to do with smelter. He said “if any opportunity arises for us to import ingots, not smelting bauxite, but importing aluminium ingots, and the economics look good, this PNM government will go back to the business once the numbers look right.”
The T&T Guardian had reported exclusively in April that Sural officials had come to Trinidad to lobby the government to restart the Alutech project at the E-Teck park in Wallerfield to make aluminium rims for motor vehicles. The downstream industry project was halted by the former People’s Partnership government in 2010.
Kublalsingh told the T&T Guardian “the matter is buried deep in the court and if picked up it would require years for re-certification.” He said “the Rowley government is now in serious financial difficulty over the smelter. The Chinese are making a case for fat compensation, they did not terminate the contract nor did the government, it was the courts.”
He also argued that given the current state of global oil and gas markets pursuing smelter would be “uneconomic. No government, unless suicidal would go for it. It is clad in the iron coffin of history.” Kublalsingh, a former University of the West Indies lecturer, had led several protests against the smelter plant.
During their visit in April, Sural’s President Alfredo Riviere, Director of the Sural Group Edgard Romero and Alutech Director Dave Bhaijoo made a presentation to the Prime Minister and his team which included then energy minister Nicole Olivierre on the “production of high-quality aluminium downstream products.”
On the political platform in Pt Fortin last Wednesday, Rowley said other countries had invested in aluminium plants and “their business is booming and expanding and they selling alloy wheels to the motor industry for the world and earning foreign exchange.”
But while the government was looking to resume the Alutech project, government sources confirmed that the original planned smelter is “definitely off the table and will not be restarted.” If the Alutech project is to be restarted it will use “imported ingots” for the production of the downstream products, one official said.
Alutrint was to have produced hot metal from the smelter for Alutech to make a number of downstream products, including rims for vehicles.
The Prime Minister said he was concerned that US$200 million owed to the Chinese firm connected with the failed Alutrint project had not been paid. A Chinese team met with the Finance Minister Colm Imbert last Wednesday and it is expected that there will be further discussions when the Prime Minster visits China in April next year.
Financing for the smelter project was sourced through the China Exim Bank which was providing the US$66.6 million dollar credit facility for the construction of the project. Efforts to get clarification from Imbert proved futile.
Background
The smelter project was shut down by the High Court in 2009 after Justice Mira Dean-Armorer ruled then that the decision of the Environmental Management Authority to grant approval for construction of the smelter plant was made in a “procedurally irregular manner.” She pointed to the lack of public consultation and the failure to find proper disposal for Spent Pot Lining a toxic by product of aluminium smelting.
The then Patrick Manning government appealed the decision of Justice Dean-Armorer, but the Appeal Court headed by Chief Justice Ivor Archie is yet to deliver judgment in the matter.