The cement producer Cimpor has announced that production at its Loulé plant will be resumed in February, 2017 and it will bring back suspended workers, although how many of the 57 that were laid off are to be taken back, remains to be announced.
Cimpor reports that "a slight sign of a recovery in the domestic market and a more positive expectation on the export front have created the minimum conditions to fire up the furnace again at the Loulé production centre with the layoff period officially ending on January 31st, 2017."
On June 9, Cimpor announced that it was temporarily suspending employees in Loulé, one of the company’s three cement factories in Portugal, in response to the contraction of the construction market and the suspension of the import cement by customers in Algeria.
Now, Cimpor is preparing to "respond to the potential for development in the south of Portugal, especially attentive to the positive signs, and to reassume its position as a centre of development in the Algarve region."
At the time, the company did not disclose the number of employees management suspended, but the union says that 57 workers were affected from September 1st, for six months.
The commercial port in Faro has not been operational since June due to Cimpor closing down its Loulé plant. Cimpor is the only customer the port has and the 16 dock workers have been idle since last summer.
