AM InvestCo Italy, parent of the
ArcelorMittal steel group, on Monday notified ILVA's
extraordinary commissioners of its desire "to rescind an accord
to lease with acquisition the assets of the Italian steel group
and some units acquired according to a deal sealed on October
31," according to a statement from the multinational.
The Franco-Spanish-Indian group, the world's biggest steel
producer, said it had "asked the extraordinary commissioners to
take on the responsibility of the assets of ILVA and its
employees within 30 days from the reception of the
communication" of ArcelorMittal's desire to leave ILVA and its
troubled plant at Taranto, the largest in Europe.
Earlier this month the government's save-business decree
removed a so-called "penal shield" protecting ILVA.
The Taranto plant, whose pollution had been linked to high
local cancer rates, was being cleaned up and turned around with
government help.
But the lifting of the shield put that operation wat risk.
Reacting to ArcelorMittal's statement, the FIM CISL union
said Monday that this had been "a masterpiece of incompetence
and political cowardice.
"Not defusing an environmental bomb, but rather combining it
with a social bomb is due to the mess made with the save-buiness
decree," said FIM CISL secretary Marco Bentivogli,
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