Matrìca: building Innovation

Construction work has begun on the first of seven ´green-chemistry´ project installations at the Porto Torres industrial area.

Porto Torres (Sassari), 16 July 2012 – Matrìca announces that the Versalis-Novamont joint venture to create one of the most innovative green-chemistry industrial areas in the world started construction on 9 July. Daniele Ferrari (Chairman) and Catia Bastioli (Managing Director) are delighted that the commitments made in the Memorandum of Understanding signed on 26 May 2011 at the Italian prime minister´s office are now becoming a reality.

The project will see seven plants built by 2016 in three phases. They will produce chemical intermediates such as monomers, additives for lubricants and elastomers, and biodegradable polymers obtained from renewable raw materials (vegetable oils and agricultural waste). Matrìca will do its best to recover the lost time of a few months which was caused by the authorisation process.

The investment for phase 1 of the project is around €105m, €39m of which will be spent this year.

Today´s announcement effectively marks the launch of the strategic regeneration of the Porto Torres industrial site, focusing entirely on the local area. The relocation of Matrìca´s registered office to Porto Torres is a tangible sign of this commitment. Others are the Research Centre (opened on 13 February), the Framework Agreement with the research institutes and the Universities of Cagliari and Sassari (also signed on 13 February), and the experimental work in the agricultural supply chain that was discussed at a technical meeting at Porto Torres on 4 July.

Recent months have also seen meetings at the Universities of Cagliari and Sassari and at Porto Torres, which attracted large numbers of interested young people. Indeed, 10 young local graduates are being selected to join Matrìca´s research team: the first three will start work before the summer; the others, later this year.

The number of ancillary contract workers, largely taken on from the local community, will reach 100 by the end of the summer – including builders, electricians and mechanics – and is set to rise to 300 by the year end. Matrìca itself will also be growing: now 20-strong, there will be around 60 employees by the end of the year and 90 in 2013.

´We don´t anticipate any more issues with the project,´ said Daniele Ferrari, Matrìca Chairman. ´Work started late through no fault of ours. From here on, the work is all downhill and we should be able to stick to the original plan.´

´With the start of the construction phase, the real challenge has begun to make Porto Torres a European centre of excellence for bioeconomics,´ emphasised Catia Bastioli, Matrìca Managing Director. ´Together with local stakeholders, we are driving the development of an agricultural supply chain based on low-input dry farming. The result will be one of the first third-generation biorefineries.´