Gap between government and Arcelor Mittal in Old Ilva: What could happen?

The conflict between the government and Arcelor Mittal over the future of Old Ilva continues. The executive has two ways to get out of the impasse: Extraordinary administration or controlled administration. The aim is to protect jobs and factories, but in the last few hours the Indian company announced that it was willing to reduce its stake in Acciaierie d’Italia from 62% to 34% without giving up governance. The fate of Europe’s largest steel mill, which is currently in danger of closure, also affects the political level; According to Carlo Calenda, there is a risk of “a new Alitalia lawsuit”.

Ex Ilva, government hypotheses

As stated, the Meloni government is trying to find a solution in the short term; An agreement that will avoid expensive and protracted disputes. The path to emergency management involves the arrival of a commissioner and the initiation of a conflict with the injection of resources by the State that could alienate potential new investors. Therefore, the controlled management hypothesis may be more valid; This allows starting from scratch, but this is not possible without some collateral damage. Mimit Undersecretary Massimo Bitonci described the possibility of voluntary liquidation as “absurd”: “We will switch to extraordinary management. Then a process needs to be started, it is important that the management structure and the industrial plan change”.

Arcelor Mittal’s position

On the other hand, a counter move came from Arcelor Mittal, which said that it was “in favor of the acquisition of the Ilva facilities in AS, which was planned for May 2022 and later postponed to May 2024.” The company expects to maintain its role as Invitalia’s industrial partner with the same 50% control status even with reverse share weightings. Under these conditions, Arcelor Mittal would be willing to continue cooperation with the Italian government.

The industrial giant wanted to underline its position: “To date, ArcelorMittal has to invest 1 billion 870 million euros in capital in Adi, as well as over 200 million euros for the purchase of raw materials and other commercial guarantees. The Italian State has invested 1,080 million euros Environmental Plan , was completed in accordance with the provisions of the Investment Agreements, and the total resource was used around 2 billion Euros. During Invitalia’s 400 million investment in Adi, this amount corresponds to 38% of the total investment. ArcelorMittal company provided public support of up to 2 billion Euros. “On the basis of its commitment, it agreed to share 50% of the control and management. Instead, to date, only 350 million measures of public funds have been provided by Invitalia and the Italian government.”

political debate

The future of Old Ilva sparks political debate on social media. Action leader Carlo Calenda expressed concern about a post about pursuing a European tender that was first approved and then withdrawn by Conte and his friends. “The choice to then start a company with Mittal without restrictions and armored risks was madness.”

The fears raised by Calenda during the Zapping program on Rai Radio Uno are as follows: “Does the Democratic Party say that steel will now go back to the State? A happy stupidity. Democratic Party governments give it to a private investor, i.e. The State, which runs the steel works in an extremely competitive market, is useless “And you end up like Alitalia. Exactly the same story.” Accusations leveled at the sender by Stefano Patuanelli, leader of the M5s group in the Senate, returned: “Today’s situation is the result of the choice of the mother of all mistakes, which was never adequately explained by the Renzi-Calenda couple, to transfer the production facility to the M5 consortium led by Arcelor Mittal”. Meanwhile, it was reported from Palazzo Chigi that the union organizations will be called to a meeting by the management on Thursday, January 11, in the afternoon.