ILVA bids to be submitted by February

(ANSA) - Rome, January 19 - ILVA Commissioner Enrico Laghi said on Thursday that bids for the troubled Taranto steel plant currently being run by government commissioners "will hopefully be submitted by February 8" but said the date wasn't binding and could be extended. "Once the offers are submitted, the decision-making phase will last 30 days," Laghi said in a Lower House budget committee hearing on the cessation procedure for ILVA. He said he expected ILVA properties to be transferred "between September and October".
    The company has the resources necessary to cover the environmental clean-up plan that it is currently carrying out, he said.
    "Thus far we've undertaken interventions totalling 320 million euros and we have orders for 800 million euros," he said.
    "By June we will hand over the confiscated areas so they can then be released".