Kosovo’s only ferronickel plant has restarted production for the first time since closing in 2021 over soaring energy costs.
DRENAS, KOSOVO -- As he stands in front of a giant furnace, Sylejman Hajdari says the sight of molten metal flowing once more fills him with happiness.
Newco Ferronikeli worker Sylejman Hajdari (right) watches nickel being processed.
In October 2021, Hajdari’s employer Newco Ferronikeli stopped production due to skyrocketing energy prices in Europe.
The 60-year-old worker told RFE/RL’s Balkan Service that the shutdown was deeply distressing “because after a long career, to have your job stopped just before retirement is not good,” he said.
Production at the plant was restarted on June 21 after three weeks of preparation to prime the facility’s massive machinery.
The nickel producer has had several different owners since being privatized in 2005, and in September 2022, while shuttered, was purchased by the Turkish Yildirim Group.
Workers inside the Ferronikeli plant on June 21.
Nickel ore deposits were first discovered in the landscape surrounding Drenas in the late 1950s. The nickel plant was built in 1984 when Kosovo was an autonomous province within Serbia, itself a part of Yugoslavia. The factory was badly damaged during the 1999 NATO bombing campaign.
Nickel is a corrosive-resistant metal used in the production of stainless steel and consumer items such as batteries and some magnets.
Workers outside the Ferronikeli company on June 21.
After the October 2021 shutdown, protests were held in which workers called on Pristina to step in. According to company officials, in the first year after production stopped, workers were paid 50 percent of their wages. More recently, the staff of around 1,000 began receiving 75 percent of their salaries and worked half-time to maintain equipment in the factory.
Fehmi Nika, the head of the workers' union at the nickel plant, says the new owners have promised stability going forward. He added that the return to production "means a lot to the workers," most of whom have bank loans.
Sparks fly inside the nickel factory on June 21
Newco Ferronikeli is one of the largest exporters in Kosovo. In 2019, before the pandemic threw global trade into turmoil, the company shipped nickel worth 51 million euros -- around 13 percent of all exports from Kosovo by value.
Although the plant is of huge economic importance to the region, it has been criticized for its environmental impact amid fears that toxic waste at the site could endanger air quality and drinking water.
The plant sources all of its electricity from abroad and so was especially vulnerable to the spiking energy prices that rocked Europe beginning in late 2021.
Fehmi Nika, the head of the workers' union at the nickel plant, watches the production floor.
At the reopening on June 21, Cemil Acar from Yildirim Group, said "our objective is to make Ferronikeli an active, efficient company that has a significant contribution to the economy of Kosovo.”