«A critical situation, that of the Taranto steel plant, which risked being irreparably compromised but from which we can and must emerge, with the collaboration of the companies, a concrete opening to the city and also a more direct relationship with the institutions, in correct locations and with the right interlocutors”.
An approach that is in clear discontinuity compared to the past, the one revealed this morning Confindustria Taranto by the Extraordinary Commissioners of Adi in AS, who met at the headquarters in via Dario Lupo, in a meeting chaired by the President of Confindustria Salvatore Toma, a large delegation of companies. Also present at the meeting were the president of the engineering and naval engineering section of Confindustria Taranto Pasquale Di Napoli and the President Ance Taranto Fabio De Bartolomeo.
It was a discussion based on clear and direct concepts: in the meantime – it was reiterated several times by the commissioners – that of environmental protection is an absolutely priority aspect, so much has been done and today it is important to make the best use of the technologies adopted. About the process decarbonisation it is the European Commission itself, through deadlines and precise obligations, that guides companies in the sector towards the adoption of alternative processes to the traditional ones and which will require a significant financial commitment.
The discussion moved on to the question of credits. The commissioners, dealing with a mass of requests – and we are talking, in particular, about those concerning the previous credits of supplier companies – requested loyalty and transparency from companies, thus hoping for a quicker closure of the already complex procedures in place. The reference was to the heterogeneity – and therefore to the complexity – of the requests received by the commissioners and to the desire expressed by the latter to be able to provide rapid responses to the so-called related companies.
In a short time, we will proceed with the payment of previous credits – declared the commissioners, also pressed by questions from the entrepreneurs present – for the companies that have approval from Sace, which fall within the regulatory provision and which demonstrate that they are strategic and bankable. Sace, we remind you, is the Italian financial insurance group specialized in supporting businesses and the national economic fabric which has approved two lines of factoring, one of which concerns support for the supply chain of Steel mills of Italy for an amount up to 120 million euros.
When confirming the regular payment of payments to the supplier companies for ongoing orders, the commissioners then focused on the prospects of the steel plant, reiterating their commitment and that of the Government in seeking a reliable entrepreneurial group willing to collaborate with the territory and its entrepreneurial fabric. Then, the hope of a necessary sharing with the city and its institutional interlocutors of everything that will be the process, from now on, that will lead to the transformation of the plant.
«In Taranto – underlined theeng. Forty – there will be one small industrial revolution because it is a candidate to be the site at national level where a change in the steel production process is initiated. Taranto will remain the only site that will allow the country system to produce steel not from scrap, therefore valuable for some important production sectors such as cars and shipbuilding. The challenge – the Commissioner further declared – will in fact be to use electric ovens powered, thanks to new technologies, by mineral but with different procedures and characteristics compared to those adopted so far. A technological leap that will allow us to produce quality steel and which we will try to report with extreme clarity to all stakeholders and the entire community.”
On the part of President Salvatore Toma, after the debate with those present, great satisfaction was expressed for the willingness shown by the Commissioners to engage directly with businesses and at the same time the hope of being able to continue along the lines of open discussion already underway and direct, the only one possible for one correct and constructive relationship between the steel factory and its business system.
