BARI – New round in the long and complex story of the companies involved in the former Ilva of Taranto. This morning the management of Acciaierie d’Italia in extraordinary administration will meet the related companies at 9am in Confindustria, doing an encore at 11am, but in the factory, with Aigi. The meetings had been requested precisely because of the worrying and continuing stalemate situation.
The companies, while still having around 120 million in credits accrued with Acciaierie d’Italia during Morselli’s management, started working again about two months ago, accepting an appeal from the commissioners through the Government. The work carried out by the related industries is in fact fundamental for the resumption of production activities and for the maintenance of the plants. However, several times the employers’ associations had requested intervention to take stock of the situation on the well-known problems linked to previous credits and the activation of the redundancy fund provided for by the Decree passed by the Government. Last April, the commissioners sent the applications to the companies requesting credit certification, but it is not clear whether or not they have drawn up the list of companies necessary to obtain the certification itself, nor how and who is made up of the Supervisory Committee. According to company sources, the procedure to allow Sace and Medio Credito Centrale to make payments on the previous amount has been started. But it is not a simple path that requires complex times and methods to achieve the desired result.
The board of directors of Sace, a couple of weeks ago, also resolved to assume a financial guarantee to cover 80% of a receivables disinvestment operation claimed by strategic suppliers towards Acciaierie d’Italia in extraordinary administration. A ceiling of 120 million euros would have been foreseen for the operation. The operation should contribute to supporting the company’s production continuity and safeguarding workers and strategic related industries. All this on paper, because the fact remains that the related companies, to date, have not yet been paid for the work performed during the Morselli management and the many doubts about the future weigh like a boulder on the fate of thousands of families.
To date, in fact, none of the measures envisaged to revive the companies that operate in the related industries of the former Ilva of Taranto, and which carry out maintenance and transport within the factory every day, have been found to be feasible. Two main factors are missing: the consent of the banks and the certification of the credits.
The day before yesterday the commissioners, meeting the metalworkers’ unions, presented a restart plan which is divided into three phases: “construction site” phase, 1 blast furnace phase and 2 blast furnace phase. The pillars on which the relaunch project is based are: the restoration of identified plants, with an economic intervention of around 400 million euros (80% in Taranto); management of a production plan that starts from 1.5 million tons/year and reaches 4 million tons/year after the summer, with the start-up of the second blast furnace in Taranto.
Finally, yesterday the Minister of Business Adolfo Urso returned to the issue of investors. «In a few days, visits to Ilva factories will begin, starting from Taranto, then Novi Ligure, Racconigi and Genoa, by potential international investors who are able to restart the plants and relaunch production – said the minister -, to make our country a leader in green steel industry in Europe.”
