Energy crisis in Europe jeopardises around 2 thousand salaries in Kosovo

This company cut off production on October 8, 2021 because of the expensive electricity in Europe. This closure left about 2,000 company employees uncertain.

Behram, who works as a janitor, says that with his salary at “Ferronkel” he holds the 7-member family. For October, this company is expected to pay workers with half the salaries, while for November it is unknown what will happen.

With hope, these hopes are holding us back because there's nothing left. We're on credit and the prices are up, and they've gone to the moon now”, says Behrami.

This worker, along with dozens of his colleagues, for two straight days Wednesday and Thursday, protested before the Government of Kosovo to seek help.

If the government helps us, it saves us”, Behram says.

The company “Balfin Group” which is owned by “Ferronkelit” until the moment this article is published has not responded to Radio Free Europe's questions on the matter. For the company's end of work, on October 8th the chairman of Drenas, Ramiz Ladrovci, had announced.

“I was informed that due to the energy crisis in Europe and the rise of the electricity price four times in global markets, work is temporarily terminated at this company”, Ludrovci wrote.

Not a word from the Government about workers' demand

“We are Kosovo” and “The company was privatised, but not even in” were some of the protest workers' banners before the Kosovo government.

Rifat Halimi, who spoke to protesters Thursday, said cutting off work at this company could cause much bigger problems than temporary lack of salaries.

“The reduction of work in the company has generated other problems, such as cutting off the workers' regular payment, creating social cases, damaging equipment after break, losing the market and other secondary factors”, he said.

There has been no reaction from the Kosovo government regarding the aid workers' demand. They have not even answered Radio Free Europe's questions on this issue until the moment of the publication of this article.

But protests are not expected to stop.

According to the chairman of the Ferronikli Workers' Union, Fehmi Nica, union actions will continue. “We have staged peaceful protests, we have called on the government to deal with our case, but if it is not taken, we go to other steps”, Nica said. According to Nica, the average salary of workers in the company is around 550 euros.

Fall of giant exporter affects economy

The “Ferronieli” plant produces and exports nickels across many parts of the world, including Italy, India, Belgium, Great Britain and Scandinavian countries.

Nikel, from this company, is sold with iron because the division of these metals cannot be done within the factory.

The factory's annual production includes between 7,000 and 10,000 tonnes of sonel and iron. We remember that according to data from “Tradingeconomics” this year a ton of niel costs $20,000 American or over $17 000.

Ferronikli company is among the biggest exporters in Kosovo.

According to Kosovo Customs data, in 2019 alone, this company had exported nickels worth 51m euros. If this is compared to the total export from Kosovo for 2019, which is 383m euros, it would be that Ferronikli makes up about 13 percent of all exports to the country.

On the other hand, import for that year has been around 3.5 billion euros worth of goods in Kosovo. Former Energy Minister Fadil Ismajli thinks cutting off the work of this metallural giant and powerful exporter is a sign of touching the Kosovo economy from the energy crisis in Europe.

The Ferronikli is definitely one of Kosovo's top exporters, and [this disruption] greatly affects the export-Import balance in Kosovo”, he said.

According to Ishmael, it may be early for a government intervention, but it needs to talk to the company to look carefully at how serious the situation is.

He says government assistance can come at least for workers who can be unemployed. Currently across Europe, energy bills are very high, due to the global increase in electricity and gas consumption. In addition to the seasonal increase in demand for electricity leading to price hikes, they have now increased due to small gas storage reserves and high prices for producing energy from coal in European Union countries.

Kosovo, however, has not yet been directly affected by the energy crisis because electricity supply is continuing to cover local electricity production.

The reason why the company “Ferroniki” was directly affected by this current is because they buy electricity from foreign markets and are not supplied at all within Kosovo. / REL