Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Dunkirk buy “really good news” for Highland operations says GFG Alliance

Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance photographed at the Fort William Aluminium Smelter.
Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance photographed at the Fort William Aluminium Smelter.

An agreement by metals giant GFG Alliance to buy Europe’s largest aluminium smelter in Dunkirk is “really good news” for its operations in the Highlands, the company has said.

According to the group, headed by entrepreneur Sanjeev Gupta, access to the larger site’s resources will help its development of an alloy motor wheels factory in Lochaber. GFG’s industrial arm Liberty House acquired the UK’s last aluminium smelter, near Fort William, from Rio Tinto in December 2016 and is currently investing £120million to modernise and expand the plant. The planned wheel manufacturing operation next to the existing site is expected to create around 400 jobs directly and a similar number in the supply chain and regional economy.

This month, GFG announced it had made a binding conditional offer to Rio Tinto to acquire the Dunkirk plant, signalling the start of a major expansion into continental Europe and a £1.7billion investment programme in France.

A spokesman for the group said: “This is really good news for Fort William because the Liberty smelter team there will in future have access to all the technical resource of the larger unit, plus other commercial resources, which will be particularly helpful as we develop the wheels factory.”

Mr Gupta said the group wants to develop an “international centre of aluminium and downstream products expertise” at the French plant.

GFG submitted plans for the Lochaber wheels factory to Highland Council in November and hopes a decision will be made by the planning committee later this month.