Delrio says ILVA loan to give liquidity

(ANSA) - Rome, February 13 - Cabinet Undersecretary Graziano Delrio said Friday that a bridge loan to troubled steelmaker ILVA will provide "great liquidity" and allow it to "immediately pay its suppliers".
    A bridging loan reportedly worth 260 million euros is to be included in a decree and will be available "in the coming weeks".
    Delrio added the arrangement "is very positive".
    Taranto Mayor Ippazio Stefàno announced the value of the bridging loan after talks with the government.
    Premier Matteo Renzi has said the government could take over the plant in the southern Italian port city of Taranto to ensure operations, and hang on to it for a couple of years until a suitable buyer is found.
    The cash-strapped steel plant, one of Europe's largest, has posed a long-standing dilemma between job needs in Italy's poor southern region of Puglia and rampant pollution.
    It has been linked to high cancer rates in Taranto. ILVA's parent group was recently declared bankrupt with debts of almost three billion euros, and has been at the centre of a row pitting environmental concerns against unions and workers fighting for their jobs.
    The Puglia plant is the city's biggest employer as well as contributing to thousands of jobs related to supplying ILVA.
    Successive governments have tried to push the company to clean up the plant while at the same time keep it open and employing workers.