Ilva isn’t closing, they say. But the government’s decree is the final nail in the coffin for the plant

“Ilva is not closing: Taranto and Genoa are continuing production. From January, the rolling mills and galvanising plants will resume operations, and workers in these departments will be recalled to work.” This is the company statement signed by Ilva’s special commissioners, issued on Wednesday evening, after half of Italy was left without fuel due to the occupation of the Taranto refinery by Ilva trade unionists. However, does the company genuinely expect stakeholders to accept that Europe’s largest integrated steelworks is not closing merely because the rolling mills will remain active, while the entire hot-rolling area is shut down and converted into a service centre? If the facility could have been sustained in this configuration, why were operations not maintained rather than suspended, only to be restarted next year?

Beyond the government’s propaganda (including that of the commissioners), the truth is that the Ilva decree approved three days ago by the Council of Ministers spells the end for the plant. €138 million is being allocated for exceptional redundancy payments from 1 October to 31 June for 9,200 direct employees and 4,500 contract workers. Added to this are the further 2,000 workers on the CIGS scheme since 2018 (Ilva in AS). This CIGS is unjustified, given that it is not accompanied by a plan to revive the company. Quite the contrary: the decree provides for a commissioner to oversee the reindustrialisation of a 100-hectare area within the Ilva site. This area will therefore no longer be used for steelmaking. Where, then, will the numerous electric furnaces and pre-reduction plants be built that everyone is still talking about? There is no longer any industrial plan for Ilva, which has been given its last rites by this decree. Nor can it be saved by keeping the only blast furnace that had remained operational on standby, given that there are no longer any raw materials in Taranto. And that we will have to wait until 2027 to supply the slabs.

All these were wrong decisions – including those that led to the closure of the AFOs – taken by the special commissioners appointed under the administration ordered by Minister Urso in 2024. It is worth recalling that the then Minister Fitto tried to prevent this. Ilva, under ArcelorMittal, was in a better position than it is today; that is a fact. This is regardless of what Urso’s lawyers claim, alongside the trade unionists and the companies that had lost influence under private ownership. Even Giorgia Meloni knows that Minister Urso’s leadership has been disastrous; she took the portfolio out of his hands a few months ago. That is why the Prime Minister was wrong to say in Parliament, ‘We have worked tirelessly to revive Europe’s most important steelworks by seeking new, reliable buyers.’ He is more to blame than Renzi. The deadline for the sale has been postponed month after month for two years: where are these buyers? Will they invest 10 billion in a new industrial plan straight away, or will they set up a service centre? Where, now that the government has even taken the land away from them? And if the new buyers do not do it, will the State step in? When, and with what funds? But above all: with what profit?