The big one “flight” of European investments towards the USA continues, the strong American incentives are now also exploited by the big Greek industries and Europe addicted to deindustrialization remains in the role of observer.
Last episode, the parallel announcements of two Greek multinationals, which have been added since yesterday to the long list of funds that are turning their backs on the European market. The Cenergy Holdings announced that it will build a new €300 million high-tech cable production facility in Baltimore, Maryland, and Titan will develop a new clean cement production line in Virginia.
Why on USA and not somewhere in the EU? Because his affiliate of Viohalco group will receive tax breaks amounting to 58 million euros, and Titan will be subsidized with amounts of up to 61.7 million dollars.
What matching grants would they get if they chose to make their investments in Europe? Most likely, nothing.
Because with the Americans and the Canadians what is often mentioned by Ev. Mytileneos. The “put the money where your mouth is”, that is, they prove with money on the table, what they mean, when the EU is satisfied with wishful thinking and mobilizes only when China starts to “sneeze”, as when Beijing threatened to stop exports of gallium and germanium. Usually, the reaction comes with a delay and is small, too little, too late, as the Anglo-Saxons say.
Against the “bazookas” of the Americans, who are rivaled by the Canadians in clever ideas and measures, Europe continues to offer facilities and less paperwork, but in terms of substance, zero.
The investment “package” Biden of 369 billion dollars aimed at attracting investments in the green and digital transition, is proving over time to be very attractive for European investors.
And so, despite the recent “Declaration of Antwerp”, an urgent appeal to the leadership of Europe, to revitalize the industrial landscape, in the midst of geopolitical upheavals, the “flight” of European industries continues.
In the case of Cenergy, his company Stasinopoulos Group, announced that its American subsidiary, Hellenic Cables Americas, has successfully submitted to the US Department of Energy a request for inclusion in the Qualifying Advanced Energy Project. The competent agency informed her that she joined this program with a tax exemption, through the IRA program, in an amount equal to 58 million dollars for the above unit.
If the due diligence process that has been ongoing for the past few months is successfully completed, Hellenic Cables Americas will proceed with the purchase of property at the Wagners Point location in Baltimore, an area of approximately 154 hectares (38 acres). According to the announcement, the transfer is expected to be completed within 8 weeks subject to receiving the usual approvals for similar transactions.
The new facility, subject to a final investment decision, will produce submarine and underground cables for offshore wind farm and power grid modernization applications. It will address the growing energy transition market with high-tech products manufactured using a modern, clean, low-noise and ultra-low-emission production process.
Some well-intentioned reader might wonder: How difficult would it be for Viohalco’s subsidiary to choose Greece for such a cable production facility for offshore wind? Especially now, when the public debate has opened on the creation of a supply chain in our country, which will produce products of high added value for the offshore wind farms that we want to develop in the Greek seas?
In the answer, in addition to the fact that such incentives, amounting to 58 million dollars, would not be found in Greece, one would unfortunately have to include the well-known reasons that have been said a thousand times.
Her bureaucracy which plagues investors throughout time. The Tax Office which does the same. Justice, which no one knows when they will hear an appeal. The permits issued with the same delay as before. The labor force, skilled and unskilled, that is missing. Trains, while internationally the main means of transporting goods, in Greece are expensive road transport. The effectiveness of the state in general.
The secondly parallel “hit” to those still expecting a strong European industrial response to the US, also came yesterday from cement maker Titan, which announced it had received a grant of up to $61.7 million to produce cement with a low carbon footprint.
Her subsidy will receive Titan’s existing Roanoke cement plant in Virginia, USA, which was selected by the US Department of Energy to develop an innovative technology that will produce thermally activated clay.
According to a related announcement, the implementation of this innovative cement technology will significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and will be a model for the development of more sustainable infrastructure both in the US and in the other regions where the group operates.
After integration of negotiations between the two parties, Titan will support the project with additional investments. The project is part of the group’s effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions as part of its ambitious goal of producing concrete with a carbon neutral footprint by 2050.
Of course, it is not only heavy industry that “votes” for the USA and Canada. In June 2023, Mytilineos had announced an investment of 1.16 billion euros for the acquisition of solar parks in Canada, the largest to date in its history, and that it is even considering the construction of an aluminum plant in North America.
THE investment at photovoltaics it will cost 800 million since the 300 million, i.e. 26%, is subsidized by the Canadians, raising the final yield by two whole units. In a three-year horizon, the cost translates into 250 million euros per year, a not inconsiderable amount, but much less than if the investment were made in a European country, without the subsidies.
The landing of European – and Greek – companies in North America continues unabated, nothing shows that it will slow down, the list is growing, the great visionary plan for the European industry that was described in his recent article by the former president of the EU and former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi is missing.
The good script is that the Commission emerging from the European elections will listen to the concerns of European industry and that we will see a completely new and dynamic European strategy for industry. No one wants to think about the bad scenario.
