Government to resuscitate ALUWORKS- Vice President

Tema, Aug. 26, GNA- Vice President John Dramani Mahama on Friday gave th= e assurance that Government would work round the clock for ALUWORKS Company Limited to survive in the ever growing competitive market. "Government will do everything possible to ensure that you step up production to feed both the domestic and international markets in the face of fierce competition from importers of products similar to yours." Vice President Mahama gave this assurance when he paid a working visit to the ALUWORKS company at Tema to acquaint himself with their operations and the challenges they faced.

He also toured the premises and learnt at first hand the level of production and goods that were produced in the factory Government set up ALUWORKS, main manufacturers of aluminum roofing sheet= s and cooking utensils, in 1978 to use the by-products of alumina to manufacture their goods. Since then the company had suffered some setbacks including competition from importers of cheaper raw materials and products. Vice President Mahama said Government would take a second look at the procurement law, which placed local industries with the same level with importers and international industries to ensure that they did not suffer unduly.

"We shall sit down with the Ministry of Trade and come out with modalities that will be fair to your operations and survival." He commended the staff and management of the company for their dedicatio= n to work in spite of the numerous challenges they faced, adding 93With time you will regain your strength in the competitive market." Mr Kojo Kwarteng, Managing Director of the Company said frequent power outages leading to intermittent closure of Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) had contributed to the reduction in their production levels. He said the same problems had also compelled the management to reduce th= e workforce from 456 to the current strength of 227 and appealed to Governmen= t to help them to increase production and employ more people in the system.