ArcelorMittal Italia to restart Taranto plate rolling mill: union sources

ArcelorMittal Italia is to restart its 600,000 mt/year plate rolling mill in Tarantoon February 10, union sources told S&P Global Platts Thursday, with production of around 30,000 mt in total targeted for a period of four weeks initially.

The facility, in southern Italy, was shut down in September.

ArcelorMittal Italia currently has three blast furnaces in operation at the site — BF1, BF2 and BF4 — with a combined production target of 4.5-5.00 million mt/year of crude steel, although the company remains in discussions with the Italian government on the future of the facility, previously known as Ilva, over the latter’s production and ownership.

The company declined to comment on the matter when contacted Thursday by S&P Global Platts.

On December 20, ArcelorMittal signed a non-binding agreement with the government to continue negotiations on a new industrial plan for ArcelorMittal Italia, after saying on November 4 that it wanted to withdraw from the Ilva purchase. An agreement is set to be reached by January 31, according to the company.

The government has said that it wants the plant to produce at 8 million mt/year with no job cuts, although ArcelorMittal has submitted plans for the plant to produce 4.5 million mt this year, ramping up to 6 million mt/year by 2023, with around 6,000 job cuts, something that has been rejected by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

Union and market sources said Thursday that ArcelorMittal and the government “are working flat out” to find a solution in the coming days.

— Annalisa Villa