Here are the plans of Arcuri (Invitalia) on the former Ilva
What did Arcuri of Invitalia say in the meeting with the leaders of the trade unions and ArcelorMittal about the former Ilva. The speech by Roberto Benaglia, general secretary of Fim Cisl
The videoconference summit was held this morning between the four ministers Stefano Patuanelli, Nunzia Catalfo, Roberto Gualtieri, Giuseppe Provenzano, in the presence of the general secretaries of Fim, Fiom and Uilm, the top management of ArcelorMittal Italia, Lucia Morselli, and Invitalia with the commissioner Domenico Arcuri.
At the beginning, Minister Patuanelli, in illustrating the process that led to the creation of the new corporate structure , stressed that the operation will end in 2022 with the entry of the new industrial entity with public and private participation.
The new investments made – as stated by Patuanelli – will be used for the refurbishment of Afo5 and the construction of an electric oven, as well as an extra-company pre-reduced plant. All this to guarantee, through the use of Afo5, Afo 4 and an electric furnace, 8 million of steel production.
According to Gualtieri, the agreement reached required a significant financial effort aimed at decarbonising steel production, based on the European New Green strategy.
Arcuri, in retracing the steps of the agreement signed, announced the will to make Taranto the most important European site for the production of "green steel". Objective achievable through three objectives: pursuit of full employment; sustainability; profitability. All this – he remarked – also through the use of electric ovens and the pre-reduced system.
As soon as the authorization of the European antitrust arrives – Arcuri announced – by January 2021 Invitalia will proceed with a capital increase (400 million), which will give 50% parity of the vote in the new company.
Between May and June 2022, then, a new capital increase by Invitalia (680 million euros) is planned, which will thus pass to the control of the new group with 60% of the shares. The union agreement and the release from seizure of the plants are essential for Arcuri.
Finally, Arcuri also illustrated the new industrial plan. Production will have to grow from the current 3.4 million tons in 2020 to 5 million in 2021; subsequently, in 2023 to reach 6 million tons, and then to move to 7 million in 2024; in 2025 (the date on which release from seizure is expected), when the plants will work at full capacity, production will reach up to 8 million tons.
The total investment for the 5 years will be 5.1 billion euros; of these 1.3 billion will be directed to the Environmental Plan. A hybrid production cycle will be added to the integral cycle, with the modernization of Afo5, with the construction of an electric furnace and three pre-reduced plants, of which two outside the company perimeter, which will also have to meet the requests of other Italian steel plants. The measures of the Environmental Plan will have to reduce polluting emissions by 70%.
In the March Plan – concluded Arcuri – the employment of 10,700 workers is guaranteed, with a progressive reabsorption of the layoffs.
Today's meeting finally clarified the aspects underlying the agreement between the government and the company in March. But as Arcuri also recalled, one of the main themes of the agreement is the trade union agreement which must not only represent a certification of the co-investment between the Government and Ami, but must be an agreement that guarantees employment and gives certain times on the investments.
We will follow the evolution of the agreement step by step, so that the gradual increase in production gives new opportunities to product finishing plants, such as tubing and rolling mills. The issue of employment remains central and must not have generic but factual guarantees.
However, there is a need to concretely understand, between now and 2025, when full employment is expected, on what type of shock absorbers we can count on. We cannot afford to have workers stay on checkout for 5 years in a row.
Then there are the 1600 Ilva workers in extraordinary administration, who cannot be excluded from the scope of the new agreement. A working solution must also be found for them within the agreement.
With regard to the workers of Ilva in extraordinary administration, we asked ministers Gualtieri and Catalfo for clarifications for the 10% integration envisaged by previous ministerial agreements, receiving guarantees on the commitment of the ministers themselves, so that this integration is confirmed also for 2021.
Through the presence of the State, we aim in the agreement to change direction with respect to the past, also through the constant involvement of workers.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/arcelormittal-invitalia-arcuri/ on Tue, 22 Dec 2020 14:00:10 +0000.