Agreement between ArcelorMittal and the Italian government for the takeover of Ilva
The ArcelorMittal site in Taranto (illustrative image).
RFI / Pauline Gleize
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
ArcelorMittal has announced an agreement for the financial investment of the Italian State in its subsidiary AM InvestCo, which had taken over the activities of Ilva in Italy.
This public-private partnership allows the government to ward off an industrial and social disaster in Taranto, a city in Puglia, in the far south of the peninsula, while the steel giant will be able to maintain partial control (40%) over production. steel in Italy.
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With our correspondent in Rome
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Anne Le Nir
The operation provides for a capital increase of the ArcelorMittal subsidiary, which buys what remains of Ilva to lead, in spring 2022, to a partnership with the company Invitalia, under the control of the Ministry of the Economy.
Invitalia will invest a total of one billion euros.
The future entity will therefore take over the extremely polluted site of the city of Taranto.
It relies on low-carbon steel, to reduce pollution, and aims for a production of 8 million tonnes in 2025. This requires public aid to support 11,000 jobs, including 8,000 on the Taranto site.
According to the plan presented by ArcelorMittal in 2019, 5,000 workers were to be made redundant or left on technical unemployment.
The plan sparked an outcry across the country, to the point of leading the government to get directly involved.
It remains to be seen whether the promises will be kept, in particular to protect the health of the 191,000 inhabitants of Taranto.
I believe that a new page is opening because the State will arrive at 60% of the capital.
It is a guarantee.
I do not believe that a State enters into a company and that it brings no added value, that things remain as they are.
But it is clear that this is a first phase and that there is now the whole question of union negotiations.
We take note of this agreement, but we repeat that beyond the financial and entrepreneurial agreement, the government must come to the negotiating table with the unions and the company.
We must address all the fundamental subjects for the future of the group, the future of the city ... For us the main subjects are on the one hand the question of industrial revival and employment, the question of the environment who tops the list, timing and characteristics of investments.
There are so many subjects that we submit to the government and to which the government must respond.
It is no longer acceptable for this to fall behind.
Biagio Prisciano, from the FIM CISL union
Pauline Gleize
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