Prysmian loses fiber cables. Is it the fault of Infratel-Invitalia?
Prysmian could close its Battipaglia plant to focus on investments in France. The unions attack the Infratel tender for optical fiber prepared by the Colao ministry. All the details
Prysmian, an Italian company that manufactures telecommunications and energy transmission cables, intends to close its plant in Battipaglia, Campania, to concentrate investments abroad.
The site – as Energia Oltre reports – has three hundred employees, but generates another six hundred indirect jobs.
WHAT THE UNIONS SAY
The FILCTEM, FEMCA and UILTEC trade unions – we read in Il Sole 24 Ore – affirm that Prysmian is "forced to privilege the territory beyond the Alps", namely France, "rather than the national one in order to practice its investment policy: 40 million of euro for an industrial reality that will feature 45 new jobs, while in Italy the Battipaglia site risks closure ».
The three abbreviations explain that the national tender for optical fiber lacks “the specifications pertaining to the Ministry of Technological Innovation and Digitization, led by Colao. This effectively puts the specific product made in Italy out of the market ”.
“With the announcement in question”, the trade unions continue, “the competent ministry has not considered fiber optics as a strategic asset and consequently as a matter that does not need technical specifications. An inexplicable and wrong decision ". On the contrary, France has indicated in its tenders "the Prysmian fiber produced in France".
THE ROLE OF INFRATEL (INVITALIA)
The "implementing body" – as it is described – of the government plans on broadband and ultra-broadband is Infratel (Infrastructure and Telecommunications for Italy), the company of the Ministry of Economic Development and part of the Invitalia group .
DUTIES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
At the end of 2021, the European Union imposed duties of up to 44 percent on fiber optic cables from China to offset the dumping practiced by Beijing. Dumping refers to the sale abroad of products at prices lower than those set for the domestic market: a policy generally implemented with the support of the state.
According to Brussels, this practice risked throwing European companies that make cables out of the common market: such as Prysmian, which is also a member of the European industrial association (EuropaCable) which pushed for the introduction of tariffs.
China accounts for around 15 percent of the European fiber optic market
WHAT (NOT) ITALY HAS DONE
According to Luigi Ulgiati, Deputy Secretary General of the General Union of Labor (UGL), the Italian tender lacks the specifications necessary to protect the optical fiber of national production from that of Chinese imports.
"We find ourselves with extreme embarrassment", says the trade unionist, "that the Ministry of Technological Innovation, rather than favoring in the national tender for optical fiber a product of high research and quality such as that produced in the FOS (Prysmian spa) of Battipaglia, has instead opted for a medium or poor quality fiber, imported from China ".
“We believe”, he added, “that the production of Italian optical fiber should be considered a strategic asset for Italy on a par with other European countries”.
PRYSMIAN'S STATEMENTS ON CHINESE FIBER
The Chinese optical fiber was also attacked by Valerio Battista , CEO of Prysmian: he defined it "of insufficient quality" and "too sensitive to bending", adding that the signal carried there could therefore "overflow" or be "picked up by a receptor" .
In addition to the invoice, Battista also contested the price of the draft by the Chinese operators: less than four dollars per kilometer, wholesale. That's a lower price than Prysmian's cost of manufacturing cables.
PRYSMIAN, BATTIPAGLIA AND FRANCE
Already last November Battista declared that Italy, with its fiber policies, was running the risk "of outsourcing the entire infrastructure to the Chinese" and compromising the Prysmian plant in Battipaglia, already at a loss of 10 million euros per year.
He therefore invited the Italian authorities to "copy the French model". In France, the telecommunications body has established precise requirements on the optical fiber to be used in the national network: specifically, it has chosen quality A2, which does not bend and is therefore safer from raid attempts. A2 is the type of fiber also produced by Prysmian.
Given the different regulatory framework, Battista explained that Prysmian had planned investments in France, but hadn't done the same in Italy. The Battipaglia site only allocates 500,000 kilometers of fiber out of the 8 million produced to the Italian market.
LOANS FROM THE EIB
Prysmian recently obtained a € 35 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The money will go to support the company's research and development plan in Europe over the period 2021-2024.
Efforts will focus in particular on underground and subsea energy network management systems, new cable materials and hybrid cables for energy and telecommunications.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/prysmian-chiusura-battipaglia-francia/ on Mon, 21 Feb 2022 09:12:11 +0000.