“We are starting again from the steel industry, we are recovering what seems completely compromised, that is, the most important steel plant in Europe. I am convinced that this year we will be in a position to outline a plan to relaunch the Italian steel industry which is the basis of our country’s manufacturing industry”this is what the Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, assures
Speaking about the Government’s industrial policy, the Minister said that “On Monday we have several meetings convened at Palazzo Chigi, in particular the one relating to the development of the rehabilitation and relaunch of the former Ilva factories. There we will present the industrial and financial plan for the relaunch of the plant.”
The appointment of the three Commissioners of the highest level, appreciated on a national and international scale, in itself does not constitute the solution to an industrial phenomenon that will remain in the history of the country as the social, environmental and territorial drama, full of serious responsibilities, to be attributed to the Conte 1, Conte 2 and Draghi governments.
The Taranto steel center was the first plant in Europe with a potential of 10 million tons of steel per year; today we have reduced ourselves to a threshold of just 1.3 million tonnes. A plant with direct and indirect employment that had reached around 25,000 working units and today, however, we are witnessing the absurd presence of around 20,000 unemployed people.
The world of information talks about everything, is interested in everything, follows the electoral campaigns and the regional scandals now widespread throughout the entire national territory (Puglia, Piedmont, Sicily), but about this emergency, which I have repeatedly defined as the “social bomb”, only local newspapers cover it.
A few days ago we learned, through various press releases, that the conditions faced by Acciaierie d’Italia are very complicated and in particular the center operates at a production rate which, projected over the year, would lead to a production of, at most, 1 .3 million tons of steel, the equivalent of just 20% of those 6 million tons with which the former ILVA would reach equilibrium.
I must recognize that the only significant first act is that produced by the three Commissioners Giancarlo Quaranta, Giovanni Fiori and Davide Tabarelli. After years of irresponsible emptiness, in a short time, they have developed an action plan which, in my opinion, is the first industrial plan. A plan that could unlock the famous 320 million euro bridge loan. Then at least another 600 million are needed to avoid the system’s stagnation. The banks, we read in a latest press release, are waiting for the bridge loan to be unblocked between Rome and Brussels which, together with the 120 – 130 million euros of credits granted to the former ILVA, represent the availability of resources from which to attempt to restart.
Let’s talk about these amounts: 120 million euros, 130 million euros, 320 million euros, 600 million euros… these are figures very far from the 4 – 5 billion to be made available immediately by the State and by the European Union . Let’s avoid deluding ourselves and the entire economic system and let’s avoid living, now forever, using the redundancy fund.
The three Commissioners know well that it is not possible to overcome this emergency without an immediate and certain commitment of public resources, they know very well that without a full guarantee from the Government, already in the budget adjustment, that is, by next 30 June, we will is moving towards an irreversible process of sad survival of something that no longer even makes sense to define as a steel centre.
Let’s rush back to talk about this emergency because it is an emergency that does not only involve Taranto and the Puglia Region. It is a socio-economic drama that involves the country and, certainly, the three Commissioners will be able to elevate this experience to a community scale. After the scandalous experience of the past five years, it would be a good idea to build a real steel plan on a community scale.
