Italy’s Supreme Court ordered the permanent shutdown of the hot area of Acciaierie d’Italia (ADI) following an appeal, according to a ruling published on 29 October.
Earlier in October, the steelmaker had temporarily idled its furnaces, pending the Supreme Court’s decision, which was seen as the last hope of saving operations at the Taranto plant. Following the ruling, operations in the hot area must be stopped.
The final ruling followed a lengthy legal battle as ADI attempted to appeal earlier rulings ordering the closure of its liquid steel production facilities. On 11 September, Milan’s Court of Appeal upheld an earlier order to shut down ADI’s hot area. This ruling rejected an appeal against the previous decision to close the hot section of the Taranto plant.
On 27 July, the Milan Court of Appeal ordered ADI to shut down its operations within the next 90 days – by 24 October. According to the ruling, ADI was required to completely remove all asbestos present at the site and implement measures to reduce dust emissions to the regulated limits. The Milan court originally ordered the suspension of production at the plant on health grounds in late February 2026.
Although ADI’s steel output was around 1 million tonnes and its presence in the spot market had been limited, the order to close production came at a time when the EU had significantly restricted access to its market for imports through new quotas introduced on 1 July 2026. Overseas material had also become more expensive due to Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) duties. European buyers had started relying more heavily on domestic supply, and the removal of ADI’s additional production volumes further supports price increases and raises concerns about potential shortages.
Italian buyers have already started sourcing slabs from China, India and Turkey, as imports of semi-finished products are not subject to EU quotas or other trade measures. Buyers plan to use domestic rolling capacities, notably ADI’s rolling mills, to produce coil and replace the missing import volumes.
Author: Maria Tanatar
