ArcelorMittal Italia on Wednesday announced the temporary lay-off of 1,400 workers at the former ILVA steel plant at Taranto for 13 weeks.
The consortium which took over ILVA last year stressed the move was temporary.
"It's a difficult decision, but market conditions are critical all over Europe," said ArcelorMittal Italia CEO Matthieu Jehl.
"I am keen to stress that they are temporary measures and that steel is a cyclical market".
The Taranto plant, now being cleaned up and revamped to save jobs and ease cancer-linked pollution, is the biggest in Europe.
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