Largest Italian flat steel producer Arvedi has submitted a binding bid for the ArcelorMittal-CLN joint venture (AMCLN), after the Italian government invoked its so-called golden power rules to impose conditions on ArcelorMittal’s plan to acquire the remainder of its Italian automotive steel joint venture with CLN-Coils Lamiere Nastri, according to two people familiar with the matter.
ArcelorMittal has decided to withdraw from its planned acquisition of the remaining 51% stake, opening the door for domestic rival Acciaieria Arvedi — now Italy’s biggest producer of flat steel products — to take over not only that stake but the whole of AMCLN, the sources said.
The decision unwinds a decade-old partnership between ArcelorMittal and one of Italy’s leading automotive steel distributors, and comes as the Luxembourg-based group remains locked in a separate dispute with Rome over the nationalization of its former Ilva plant, once Italy’s largest flat steel asset.
ArcelorMittal and CLN set up the joint venture, ArcelorMittal CLN Distribuzione Italia, in 2015, as ArcelorMittal sought to expand its position in southern Europe — a strategy cemented in 2018 with its acquisition of Ilva.
ArcelorMittal had originally agreed to acquire the remaining 51% of the venture it did not already own. The European Commission cleared the wider transaction at the end of April 2026, saying “it was compatible with the internal market.”
Rome, however, used its golden power framework — legislation designed to protect companies deemed strategically important to the national interest — to attach conditions to the takeover, including a requirement for government approval and commitments on company restructuring, the people said.
Faced with those conditions, and against the backdrop of an unresolved standoff with the Italian government over the nationalization of its former Ilva assets, ArcelorMittal opted not to proceed with the acquisition, the people said.
The dispute over Ilva, once Europe’s largest steelworks, has weighed on ArcelorMittal’s broader Italian strategy for several years, amid disagreements with Rome over production levels, environmental remediation and the plant’s ownership structure.
Acciaieria Arvedi declined to comment, and ArcelorMittal did not answer when reached for a comment.
