Day: 10 January 2026

The closing of the sale of Acciaierie d’Italia (ADI) to US investment fund Flacks Group is expected to take place between late February and, at the latest, April, founder and chief executive Michael Flacks tells Kallanish.

The Italian government is set to hold a 40% stake, while crude steel output at the Taranto steelworks is expected to rise to around 4 million tonnes/year from the current 2mt within 12 months of completion, with a workforce of 8,500. A government announcement awarding the former Ilva site to Flacks Group is expected still this week.

Output at Taranto is then anticipated to reach 6mt within 18-24 months after the deal closing. Initially, the plant will operate with one blast furnace, with plans to restart a second.

“Italy has strong needs for steel and it’s only producing half of what it needs,” Flacks says, adding that in the first year the steelmaker is expected to achieve turnover of around €4 billion ($4.66 billion) as the company undergoes “significant change”. Flacks’ plan includes replacing the existing blast furnaces with three electric arc furnaces.

In December, Flacks Group emerged as the preferred bidder against rival Bedrock in the tender for the former Ilva and its assets. The steel producer will be renamed Ilva. The transaction involves a €5 billion ($5.89 billion) investment commitment.

Speaking to Kallanish last month, Flacks described the project as “most exciting”. He noted the large scale of the Taranto site, the large port, and the potential for the modernised facility to reach 12m t/y production within about 12 years. The Taranto site offers opportunities beyond steelmaking, including renewables and data-centre development.

Tata Steel’s UK and Netherlands operations have both reported lower volumes for the October-December quarter (Q3) of fiscal year 2026 (FY26), Kallanish learns from its recent provisional results.

For liquid steel production, Tata Steel Netherlands reported 1.68 million tonnes for the quarter, down from 1.76mt in Q3 2025, but little changed from 1.67mt in the previous quarter. On a nine-month basis, this stood at 5.05mt, down from 5.12mt during the same period in 2025.

The company says that “seasonal factors and subdued market dynamics led to lower deliveries” on a quarter-on-quarter basis.

Delivery volumes for the quarter were at 1.4mt, down year-on-year from 1.53mt, and q-o-q from 1.54mt. On a 9M basis, these volumes were at 4.44mt, down from 4.5mt for the same period of 2025.

In the UK, work continues on Tata’s new electric arc furnace following the end of ironmaking at the site in September 2024.

Tata says that “enabling works for the EAF project have advanced and the site landscape is being reshaped for the next phase of construction”.

As part of this, it is serving its customers via downstream processing of purchased substrate. UK deliveries in Q3 dipped to 0.52mt, from 0.57mt each in the previous quarter and Q3 2025. On a 9M basis, deliveries stood at 1.69mt, down from 1.88mt year-on-year.