The Department of Industry, Competitiveness and Business Development submitted the proposal to the Governing Council to declare the Iberfoil project in Sabiñánigo of regional interest. This is a circular and sustainable economy project that consolidates the aluminium industry historically rooted in the town of Sabiñánigo in Huesca. The Iberfoil company’s project involves an investment of more than 42 million euros and the creation of 40 direct jobs in the first phase, 75 in the second, and 400 indirect jobs, as well as consolidating the current 110 jobs. The work of this company is strategic for Spain, as it is the only plant of its kind in our country dedicated to the lamination of thin sheet for the pharmaceutical and food sectors.
The declaration of investment of regional interest is a strategic instrument to facilitate the attraction of business investment and the renewal of the productive model of the Aragonese economy, in such a way that it can be applied to the development of investment initiatives linked to the maintenance and expansion of industrial activity, favouring the creation of wealth and quality employment in the Aragonese territory.
Hydrogen technology plays an important role in the investment project to be launched by Iberfoil in Sabiñánigo, which has been presented precisely in the facilities of the Aragon Hydrogen Foundation in Huesca. The project envisages the development of smelting furnaces that will allow the future use of up to 100% locally produced hydrogen as fuel from renewable resources in the area, which, in addition to avoiding CO2 emissions associated with this type of processes that currently occur in the aluminium industry, will contribute to the deployment of the hydrogen economy in the region.
For the Vice President and Regional Minister of Industry, Competitiveness and Business Development, Arturo Aliaga, “this project consolidates a basic industry in the Alto Gállego region, and more specifically in the town of Sabiñánigo, and strengthens competitiveness and the capacity to attract investment related to this type of industry which, as in this specific case, specialises in aluminium rolling. And it is worth highlighting that it not only allows the consolidation of the more than one hundred jobs that it already has in the town of Huesca, but also the creation of 115 direct jobs and 400 indirect jobs in the two planned phases”. The vice-president insisted that “it is a strategic project for Spain and we have conveyed this to the central government. It is important for Aragon and is a qualitative and quantitative leap in a circular economy project led from Sabiñánigo”.
In addition, Aliaga adds, “this type of project highlights the preponderant role that hydrogen will play as a fuel in a future that is already beginning to be defined and in which Aragon clearly occupies a fundamental place. We must not forget that it was a pioneering territory in research and in the setting up of the Foundation for the Development of Hydrogen Technologies in Aragon, which has been in existence for 16 years”.
For his part, the president of the Alibérico Group, Clemente González Soler, says that “in a world that is going to be increasingly less global and more local, the security of supplies of raw materials will be key for industry and the economy of countries”.
IBERFOIL PROJECT IN SABIÑÁNIGO
The company Iberfoil aims to integrate the new smelting and continuous casting factory to manufacture aluminium coils from aluminium scrap.
The new factory for the recovery of scrap, its smelting and the manufacture of 6 mm thick coils from continuous casting is part of the “Iberfoil Integra” project. It consists of the construction of a new factory of more than 45,000 square metres, adjacent to the current plant that the company already has on land purchased in 2018 from Alcoa, to recover scrap from Iberfoil’s own scrap and from the other plants of Alibérico and its customers in Spain, by melting it in five furnaces (1 rotary, 2 melters and 2 maintainers), manufacturing liquid aluminium that will feed two continuous casting lines that will manufacture 25,000 tonnes of coils per year.
This plant, equipped with maintenance equipment and services in a new 10,000 square metre industrial building, with its corresponding services, will allow Iberfoil to be a totally autonomous factory that will carry out the complete process of transforming aluminium scrap into thin sheet coils with a thickness of 6 microns.
This project involves a strong private economic investment, which favours the creation of wealth, both in the municipality of Sabiñánigo and in the Alto Gállego region and province of Huesca. It involves a total investment of 42.3 million euros to be made between 2021-2023 and guarantees the maintenance of the current Iberfoil thin sheet rolling mill in Sabiñánigo, which employs 107 people, and will lead to the creation of 40 new jobs in the first phase, reaching more than 75 direct jobs in a second phase; a figure to which should be added the 400 additional indirect jobs that are generated.
This project favours the maintenance and growth of industrial activity, the consolidation and increase of quality employment and has a special relevance for economic, social and territorial development in Aragon. And, in particular, it represents an important investment boost for the region and contributes to the social and economic development of the Alto Gállego region and the province of Huesca, fixing the population in the territory.
