The hot zone at the former Ilva site remains inactive, says the Court of Appeal.

The Milan Civil Court of Appeal has upheld the ruling issued at the end of July ordering the closure of the hot zone at the former Ilva plant in Taranto, which must be implemented by 28 October. The judges rejected the application to suspend the shutdown of operations submitted by the lawyers representing AdI and the former Ilva, which is under special administration. Legal sources explain that the appeal court judge has thus decided not to suspend the enforceability of the decree, which, in turn, orders the shutdown of the coking plants and blast furnaces at the Taranto steelworks. 

The application to request that the decree be placed on ‘hold’ had been submitted by Acciaierie d’Italia and Ilva, which is under special administration. In July, the Court of Appeal granted 90 days (therefore expiring by the end of next October) to shut down the hot area until ‘all asbestos still present in the plant had been completely removed’ and ‘the necessary measures had been taken to bring particulate matter emissions back within safety limits’. 

As explained here, in July the Milan Court of Appeal essentially acknowledged that the statutory limits on dust emissions had not been exceeded, whilst stating, however, that those limits do not sufficiently safeguard public health. It therefore ordered a halt to operations, ruling that Ilva may resume production once dust levels have been brought back within ‘safety limits’. Furthermore, despite the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research having stated that the residual asbestos was fully contained and that the affected areas did not currently pose a risk, the Court deemed that assessment insufficient, set aside the Integrated Environmental Authorisation (AIA) – the public permit setting out the conditions under which a factory may operate – on this point, and replaced the criterion of containment with that of total removal prior to restarting operations.

In 2025, Ilva produced around a quarter of the steel it produced in 2012 – approximately two million tonnes compared with over eight million. The Afo1 blast furnace remains under seizure, whilst Afo4 is shut down for maintenance and Afo2, despite the recent accident in August, remains the only blast furnace in operation. In August, Federacciai, together with 14 member companies, submitted an expression of interest for the former Ilva plants, currently managed by Acciaierie d’Italia under special administration. The expression of interest was submitted for all the former Ilva plants, excluding the hot section of the Taranto site, which is subject to a shutdown ordered by the courts with effect from 28 October.