Acciaierie d’Italia’s special commissioners are targeting crude steel production of 6 million mt at the mostly shuttered plant by 2027, union officials told S&P Commodity Insights April 30.
The commissioners told the union officials April 29 they will build two electric arc furnances each with capacities of 2 million mt/year of liquid steel from the second half of 2025 and they forecast that they would come into operation in the second half of 2027.
During the transition period, the union officials said ADI will revamp its No. 2 blast furnace that will restart production this September and BF No. 1 that will restart production in eight-nine months as it needs work in the heart of the furnace, the so-called “crogiolo” and they will run until the new EAFs will start production. BF No. 2 stopped production in January this year, while BF No. 1 suspended its production in August 2023. Both have a capacities of around 1.8 millon-2 million mt of crude steel.
Currently, BF No. 4 is working at 60% of capacity, producing 4,000 mt/d of crude steel. The ADI commissioners plan to increase its production.
Unions officials said they were disappointed with the “relatively new plan,” similar to one presented in 2018, because it does not take into consideration the revamping and modernization of BF No. 5, once the largest European blast furnaces, with a capacity of 4 million mt/year, with also a direct-reduced iron plant. Unions said the company decided to scrap the idea of BF No. 5 as too expensive as it would cost between Eur500 million ($536 million) and Eur600 million. BF5 was shut in 2015.
Unions also reported that Italian economy minister Adolfo Urso said companies interested in buying ADI will start to visit the plant from the second half of May.
The Italian government on Feb. 20 put ADI under special administration following a request from state investment agency Invitalia, despite opposition from ArcelorMittal, ADI’s biggest shareholder. ArcelorMittal bought ADI — formerly Ilva — from the Italian government in 2018 for Eur1.8 billion. The special administrators are also in change to prepare a sale tender with the tender is expected to take place at the end of summer. Among the potential buyers are Ukraine’s Metinvest, Italy’s Arvedi, India’s Vulcan Steel and Steel Mont, an India-based trading and producer steel company that it also has offices in Italy.
