Business and Made in Italy Minister
Adolfo Urso told parliament on Thursday that the troubled former
ILVA steelworks in the southern Puglia port city of Taranto, now
known as Acciaierie d'Italia (ADI), is in desperate need of new
management to stay alive.
Multinational ArcelorMittal current owns 62% of ADI with the
rest in the hands of State investment agency Invitalia.
The government has proposed taking the State's stake in the
cash-strapped company up to 66% by injecting 320 million euro of
fresh capital to support ADI's operations.
ArcelorMittal is reportedly willing to accept this as long as
its say in the company's governance remains unchanged.
"We intend to reverse course by changing crew," Urso told the
Senate in relation to the crisis at the huge plant, which gives
work to around 20,000 people directly and indirectly.
"We are committed to rebuilding the former Ilva plant, making it
competitive with the green technology that Italian steelworks,
the leaders in Europe, are already committed to".
"The plant is in a situation of serious crisis.
"Production for 2023 will come in at less than three million
tonnes, as in 2022, well below the minimum target of four
million".
Urso blasted ArcelorMittal's attitude.
"Arcelor Mittal has said it is willing to go down to having a
minority stake, but is not willing to contribute financially, in
proportion to its share, offloading the entire financial burden
on the State and, at the same time, claiming the privileges
granted in the original shareholders' pacts made when they
created the Acciaierie d'Italia company, so as to condition any
further decisions," Urso said.
"This is neither acceptable nor viable both in substance and in
light of European constraints on state aid.
"So we have given Invitalia and its legal team a mandate to
explore every possible consequent solution".
In addition to its economic woes, the plant has long been dogged
by troubles linked to pollution and its impact on the health of
local people.
It has been undergoing an environmental cleanup to cut its
noxious emissions amid high pollution-linked cancer rates in the
Puglia city.
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