MEMBERS OF the private sector and stakeholders in the bauxite industry have welcomed the announced $41 billion (US$690 million) expansion at the Jamalco alumina refinery at Halse Hall, Clarendon, as a boost to the local economy. But they warn that productivity must be sustained in the sector to obtain optimal benefits from the investment.
"Efficiency is a clear issue in this particular industry whether it relates to labour or other inputs and this means that we will always have to be watching our competitiveness with the rest of the world," Dr. Paul Robertson, Minister of Development, told The Gleaner yesterday.
Jamaica is ranked within the third quartile of alumina-producing countries worldwide. However, the expansion of the Jamalco refinery over the next three years to increase its production from 1.25 million tonnes per year to 2.65 million tonnes, could put Jamaica in the first quartile.
According to Dr. Robertson, Government must continue to honour its responsibility to create conducive economic conditions to attract more investments similar to the expansion. He said the expansion suggested "serious confidence in the future here."
The expansion will be undertaken by Alcoa Inc., the world's leading supplier of aluminium. Alcoa has a 50 per cent stake in the 35-year-old Clarendon plant which employs just over 430 workers; the Government owns the remaining 50 per cent.
HOPE OF GROWTH
Norman DaCosta, the National Workers' Union's (NWU) vice-president with responsibility for the bauxite industry, said: "The expansion at this time provides tremendous hope of growth in the industry." But he, too, noted that efficiency would be critical both on the part of the union and the company.
"We are attuned to the global imperative of competitiveness," he said, pointing to a 23 per cent increase in productivity within the sector since the signing of the 1998 Memorandum of Understanding between the bauxite companies on the one hand, and the government and the unions, on the other.
He said the NWU would continue to ensure that workers remain efficient but added that bauxite companies must begin to maximise on fuel and other materials that were used in the production of alumina.
He said that with the expected expansion in production, the company would need to accelerate its land reclamation programme above the current rate so that more use could be made of mined-out lands.
Beverly Lopez, president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), said the PSOJ would meet next week with Jamalco officials to further explain the proposed expansion and to identify how the private sector may contribute to the success of the expansion project.
"Essentially we have to recognise that people who are making this kind of investment need to have stability in their labour relations and stability in the environment and it is critical that the unions recognise the importance of this investment," she said.
BIG UPGRADING PLANS
The Jamalco development is part of a larger Alcoa project that includes the upgrading of the Juruti Bauxite reserve in Brazil to meet the growing demand for aluminium by construction and car manufacturing industries.
Kevin Lowery, director of corporate communications at Alcoa in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States, had said in a Jamaica Information Service news release on Saturday, that the decision to include Jamaica in the expansion project was based on "the unbelievable co-operation we have with the Government, as well as the fact that Jamalco has an outstanding workforce that puts us in an unbelievable low cost position."
Alcoa operates 350 companies in 38 countries with a total workforce of 127,000.
The expansion project at Jamalco would result in increased employment and an additional $18 billion in gross foreign exchange earnings.
