Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic and Uniprom owner Veselin Pejovic during their visit to KAP facilities. Source: Montenegrin Government
Uniprom has announced that it will invest around €26-million for overhauling and upgrading the aluminium smelter KAP, according to the company's owner Veselin Pejović.
In the coming months, Uniprom plans to open an €11-million production unit for silumin alloys. The capacity will be 30,000 tonnes per year.
The company also intends to invest €15-million in the construction of a unit for the production of aluminium billets, which will have a capacity of 70,000 tonnes per year and is scheduled to be operational by the end of 2019.
"The two factories will have a combined output of 100,000 tonnes, which means that in 2020 we should have exports of circa $300-million (€266-million)," Pejović said.
During a visit to the KAP smelter, the Montenegrin Prime Minister Duško Marković said that Uniprom has also installed a facility for use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a raw material to replace fuel oil and petroleum products.
Uniprom bought KAP from the Government of Montenegro in 2014 for €28-million. The previous year, KAP went bankrupt after years of financial difficulties, owing a debt of €383-million, more than double its €180-million worth. The government had bought a large stake in the formerly privatised company from Cyprus-based Central European Aluminum Company (CEAC), itself owned by Russian aluminium producer EN+ Group, in an attempt to stem the losses which were estimated at being around €200,000 per day.
The future of KAP is still a contentious issue in Montenegro as the plant is still a large employer and exporter in the country.
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