Blutec, a subsidiary of the Italian metal manufacturer Metec Industrial Materials, is to hire approximately 250 workers by the end of 2016 in the Termini Imerese plant.

The  vehicle producer Fiatsite closed  the site in November 2011 with 1,560 workers being made redundant. At that time a new investor agreed to progressively hire back 1,300 former Fiat employees by the end of 2014 (see FiatIT-2009). However the plan lacked the necessary financial support and it was eventually aborted.

Negotiations continued between local and national authorities, social partners and potential investors until the approval in December 2014 of the Blutec industrial plan. Public authorities agreed to provide loans for investments in the plant, and to fund strategic local infrastructures and training measures for workers, whilst Blutec agreed to relaunch production, hiring back all the redundant workers not having accessed retirement yet (approximately 700).

In April 2016, Blutec confirmed that the plant will be finally operational by the end of the month, gradually employing about 250 former Fiat workers in the production of vehicle components. The company expects to absorb the remaining 450 redundant workers by 2018, when the plant should be ready to produce also hybrid vehicles.