ArcelorMittal Italia’s chief executive officer has requested a meeting with the Italian government to discuss its updated proposal for the Ilva plant, which the latter rejected last week.
In requesting a summit with Ivitalia, Lucia Morselli noted the company’s efforts to enhance the Taranto-based mill through environmental and industrial investments, and that it would double annual output to 6mn mt by 2023 and to 8mn mt three years later. However, in light of the pandemic’s adverse impact on the global steel industry, the company has requested federal and state funding, as well as to defer its environmental commitment.
The company has lauded its plan, which was initially conceived in March, for compromising between costly environmental upgrades and retaining a sizeable workforce. But with a flagging global economy, the Italian government is trying to prevent job losses at the plant and rejected ArcelorMittal’s proposal on June 9.
The Ilva plant has been hampered in recent years by accusations that its owners had failed to contain toxic emissions. In 2015, Ilva employed about 16,000 workers and had steel production capacity of 11mn mt.