The AM Investco consortium, formed
by world No. 1 ArcelorMittal of India and Marcegaglia of Italy,
on Monday night beat a rival consortium to take over the
troubled ILVA steel group.
Industry Minister Carlo Calenda signed a decree awarding
ILVA, with its massive loss-making and polluting Taranto plant
and another large one in Genoa, to AM Investco, beating another
Indian-Italian consortium, AcciaItalia, formed by Sajjan
Jindal's JSW Steel and also featuring Arved, CDP, and the Del
Vecchio group.
ArcelorMittal chief executive Lakshmi Mittal said in a
statement that the company "will work with all interested
parties to guarantee Ilva, its workers and the regions where it
operates a better, more stable and sustainable future."
Workers at the Taranto plant struck for four hours last week
to protest against thousands of layoffs planned by potential
buyers.
This was despite a statement from the industry ministry
saying "no one will be left without protection".
Recently both consortia bidding for the steelmaker were
reported to be looking at 5-6,000 redundancies.
A court this year declared ILVA insolvent, with debt totaling
nearly three billion euros.
ILVA currently employs 14,220 workers, including 2,400 who
are on redundancy payments.
The Taranto plant, the largest in Europe, is undergoing a
painful restructuring to revamp it and clean it up after years
in which it was linked to high local cancer rates.
Amco Investco has said it sees the workforce falling to 9,407
by 2018, and then to 8,480 by 2024 - cuts of 4,813 and 5,740
respectively.
The government is set to meet trade unions on these
redundancies on Friday.
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