185 employees directly and indirectly, average salary up to 60 thousand LEK per month and trained staff. Economic improvement for a whole community, social impact and radical change of well-being.

These are just some of the details of a mega-investment carried out by an Albanian company, which has revitalized not only the famous Ferrochrome Plant in Burrel but has also transformed the economic and social life for many families in the area.

This investment consists in the construction of a 12.5-megawatt Ferrochrome furnace with High Carbon, with 2 levels of inflow (metal & skor) and auxiliary plant worth 11 million dollars. This enables increased ferrochrome production capacity by doubling it to 36,000 tons of ferrochrome per year, from about 17,000 tons a year earlier.

In fact, the impact of this investment, apart from providing the solution to area unemployment, is revitalizing other ventures associated with the activity concerned, grocery stores, present businesses, due to the influx and focus on domestic and foreign human resources that such an investment carries on itself.

The investment was made possible thanks to Albchrome, which is part of Balfin Group.

Albchrome është konsideruar si një ndër 5 markat më të mira në botë nga “Metal Bulletin”, revista më e njohur botërore e metalurgjisë, minierave etj.

The investment has had a significant impact on the local and national economy, with more taxes paid to the state, as well as more social contributions paid by the company through insurance for its employees.

Also, at local level, the growth of prosperity, the revival of existing economic entities and the creation of new business entities will generate new jobs and more local government taxes.

The investment was implemented through an Italian company, in order to use the best international expertise on the assemblage of plant furnaces.

Ervin Isaj, Director of the Burrel Plant, sees the situation very optimistic. “Through this investment, young people see this opportunity as their future and are oriented towards vocational education. This investment has led to increased employment by AlbChrome but also from subcontracting companies that have worked on the realization of the investment, ” – he said.

The history of the plant and its revival from the Balfin Group

The production of ferrochrome at the Burrel plant has its beginning in 1978 and continued until 2000 (when this plant was managed by the state) when furnace no.2 ceased its activity to be reignited in April of the 2003, when it continued to work for almost 2 years, to be re-launched once again in 2008 for only a few months.

Immediately with the acquisition of the company by the Balfin Group in 2012, the implementation of an investment plan aimed at the re-privatization of all concession facilities that were left in conservation until then.

On September 9, 2014, Furnace 2 was restored at the Burrel Ferrochrome Plant, whose rebignition was preceded by a nearly 10-month work for the reassemble of the furnace, which had not worked since 2008, but also the majority of the links and auxiliary processes, which were in poor technical condition.

At the beginning of 2017, in pursuance of the investment plan, the investment for the construction of a new furnace and ancillary plants was started, an investment worth USD 9.4 million and representing almost double the commitments undertaken by the company with the concession agreement.

Thanks to this investment, 65 new jobs have been opened at the Burrel Ferrochrome Plant.

The hired staff thanks to this investment pre-hiring did attend a 6-month training program at the Ferrochrome Plant in Elbasan.

Luan Saliaj, the CEO of AlbChrome, does not hide the pride of what has been achieved.

“The descendants of the first Albanian metallurgists are given the invaluable opportunity to further the tradition of ferrochrome Albanian production. December 2017 records the biggest investment that this plant has known since its foundation thanks to Balfin Group: about $ 11 million invested in a new modern furnace and all other plant auxiliary plants, ” – he said.

AlbChrome is part of the Balfin Group, the largest and most innovative investment group in Albania and one of the largest in the region, known for its investments in shopping malls QTU, TEG and SEG, residential and commercial development, tourism with projects such as Green Coast Resort and Vala Mar Residences, in the banking sector with Tirana Bank, in the fashion and mining industry, as well as in retail sales activities with Neptun, Jumbo, SPAR, etc.