Ilva and Urso’s web

The Federacciai consortium, which had submitted an expression of interest for Ilva, will not be taking part in the tender, which closes on 8 November. After months of due diligence and numerous site visits, the Italian consortium led by the former president of Federacciai, Antonio Gozzi, concluded that the technical and economic assessment would reveal a particularly complex picture, leading the majority of the companies to consider the operation too costly and risky in relation to their capabilities.

For months—indeed, for two years—the Minister for Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, claimed that there was a queue of global players keen to take part in his tender, and ready to invest 10 billion to turn Ilva into Europe’s largest green steelworks. For two years, without fail, every two months, an investor would drop out. But Minister Urso did not lose heart, and would immediately extend the deadline because ‘a fourth interested investor has come forward’. The last time this happened was on 25 August, when the tender was postponed due to interest from a Qatari player, whose name was never revealed. The same scenario had occurred on 1 April – a symbolic and evocative date – when Urso had promised that the tender would be concluded by the end of the month. He had made identical statements in March and on ten previous occasions. All to avoid admitting that the tender was not viable.

Flacks Group, Bedrock, Baku Steel – in the end, only Jindal remained, having already been ruled out a year ago by the minister, who did not approve of the ‘mini Ilva’ proposal: just the cold-rolling section, with coils and raw materials sourced from India. This is why, last summer, Prime Minister Meloni asked Federacciai to take part in the tender. The industrialists attempted to submit a bid for the cold-rolling section alone, but even that – having examined the figures – would be a dud. Only Jindal remains in the running until 8 November, provided Urso does not change his mind. That is, unless Urso extends the deadlines of what is now a never-ending tender process, which increasingly resembles Penelope’s web, in which, however, time is being dragged out because the suitors are running away.