Algeria's Cevital to 'boost jobs' at Lucchini after purchase

(ANSA) - Rome, December 9 - Algeria's Cevital intends to not only maintain all staff at the Lucchini steelmaker but to also "increase employment over the next four years", company chairman Isaad Rebrab said Tuesday.
    Rebrab was in Rome for the signing of a purchase agreement with Italy's second-largest steelmaker, which employs 2,000 people at its plant in the Tuscan port city of Piombino.
    Previously owned by Russia's Severstal, Lucchini has been under special administration since 2012 after going bankrupt.
    Premier Matteo Renzi described the Lucchini-Cevital deal as "strategic" for Italy.
    The deal "sends a big message to foreign investors and for the future of a sector that is absolutely decisive for tomorrow", the premier said. "Piombino is a piece of Italy's future: the traditional steelmaking, manufacturing industry is a piece of the future and not just of the past," Renzi added. He also thanked the Tuscan regional and local administrations and the labour unions for their part in the deal.
    "It may seem odd that I should express my gratitude to the unions, but I do so willingly," said Renzi who has been on collision course with the country's labour representatives in recent months particularly over his controversial Jobs Act. "In an industrial dispute, it is right and important that the unions sit at the negotiating table," Renzi said, adding however that the budget and other laws were the prerogative of government and parliament.