The United Steelworkers (USW) union and Bedrock Industries have agreed to reach a new collective agreement that would push the reopening of Pointe-Noire, the iron ore pellet plant in Quebec.

The USW president, Robert Roy, indicated that the collective agreement would allow some flexibility in the organization of work, and it was helpful for the restart of production.

The annual production capacity of Pointe-Noire pellet plant reached 6 million tons, but it was closed since June 2013. The plant owned three production lines, one of which was expected to restart production at the end of this year with a production capacity of 2 million tons, and the other two would be relaunched in 2021.