Iraq chaos to delay Wärtsilä power plant delivery

Chief shop steward: No one can be forced to travel to war zone

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Wärtsilä's plans for the delivery of two large power plants to Iraq are receiving the finishing touches at the company's Vaasa site, but the start of actual construction work will need to wait for more peaceful conditions.
      Pekka Ahlqvist, the Wärtsilä Vice President in charge of power plants, explained that the company will now monitor the situation closely. So far, everything has proceeded on schedule in Vaasa, but Ahlqvist believes the next steps may be delayed due to the current unrest in Iraq.
      Wärtsilä plans to use subcontractors from Iraq and its neighbouring countries for the actual construction work on the two 341-megawatt power plants.
      "We will be in a phase relatively soon where we should start signing subcontracting agreements, but this is difficult if the timetable is very uncertain. The current situation over there seems to be very chaotic", Ahlqvist commented.
     
The facilities were ordered by the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity, which is currently headed by Americans. The main responsibility for the negotiations was with the Wärtsilä offices in Dubai.
      There are currently no Wärtsilä employees in Iraq. Ahlqvist says that although the bulk of the work will be carried out by locals, the project will need to be overseen by Finns at some stage.
      According to the original schedule, the forty engines for the plants would be delivered in the autumn from Wärtsilä's factory in Trieste, Italy. Then the operations could commence in early 2005.
     
Pauli Karhu, a chief shop steward at the Wärtsilä plant in Vaasa, does not recommend travelling to Iraq to anyone, as the country is classified as a war zone. Karhu also pointed out that no one can be forced to travel to a war zone.
      According to Karhu, part of the supervision could take place from Finland via video cameras, telephones, and e-mail. This has been done previously during projects in some Muslim countries.
      Wärtsilä has estimated that around twenty Finns will be needed in the project in Iraq. According to Karhu, no one at Wärtsilä has yet been asked about their willingness to travel to Iraq.


Links:
  Employees protest against dismissal plans at Wärtsilä AGM (16.3.2004)
  Wärtsilä gets EUR 367 million order for two power plants in Iraq (18.3.2004)

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