April 25 (SeeNews) - Montenegrin company Uniprom has started the construction of a 15 million euro ($16.7 million) aluminium billets production unit at aluminium smelter KAP's factory in Podgorica, the economy ministry said.
Uniprom plans to create 80 jobs at the unit and to open it in December, the economy ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
The company also plans to open in the coming months an 11 million euro unit for production of silumin alloys with a capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year, Uniprom's owner, Veselin Pejovic, said in the statement.
"We expect these large investment to stimulate the creation of a significant number of new jobs and more investments, and in the future we see Uniprom's KAP as a very important economic entity for Montenegro," economy minister Dragica Sekulic said.
Uniprom has also installed a facility for the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a raw material, replacing fuel oil and petroleum products, prime minister Dusko Markovic said during a visit to the smelter in March.
KAP entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2013 and was sold by Montenegro's government to Uniprom in 2014.
($ = 0.89628 euro)