Here’s how the government will save Acciaierie d’Italia (ex-Ilva) again
What will the government do to support Acciaierie d'Italia, what the managers say and what the unions are asking for. All the details
Yesterday the ministers of Labor and Economic Development, Andrea Orlando and Giancarlo Giorgetti, met with the representatives of Acciaierie d'Italia (the former ILVA), the trade unions, Confindustria and the regions. They have promised financial aid to the steel company so that it can overcome the liquidity crisis, which will be defined by a specific rule of the Aid bis decree.
WHO IS IN ACCIAIERIE D'ITALIA
Acciaierie d'Italia is the company that manages, among others, the ILVA plant in Taranto, in Puglia. It is set up by Am InvestCo Italy, of the ArcelorMittal steel group, and by Invitalia, the Italian investment attraction agency wholly owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
FIGURES AND METHODS OF INTERVENTION
Neither Orlando nor Giorgetti have said how much the financial aid will be or what type it will be. Il Sole 24 Ore writes, however, that it will probably be an intervention on capital; as for the figure, it should be between 500 million and 1 billion euros. The second of the two sums had already been mentioned by Minister Giorgetti during another meeting with the company and the unions on 23 June last.
GIORGETTI'S ASSURANCE …
Sources in Sole 24 Ore let it be known that yesterday Giorgetti guaranteed the government's willingness to make "a significant financial commitment" for Acciaierie d'Italia, with a state guarantee. The aid will be "sufficient until the context conditions" return to a situation of "relative normality" – he referred to the increase in the prices of raw materials – and should be "supported" by ArcelorMittal.
… AND THOSE OF ORLANDO
According to Minister Orlando, “the conditions exist to carry out an intervention. It will be an intervention that determines the necessary liquidity. It will not be subject to third party approvals but substantial and solid. I say this having knowledge of the hypotheses on the table being discussed ”.
WHAT THE MiSE SAID
From the Ministry of Economic Development they said that the support provision for Acciaierie d'Italia provided for by the Aid bis decree will contain measures aimed at supporting the company's operations: both in terms of liquidity, in order to relaunch steel production and protect the workers, both in relation to the procurement costs of raw materials and energy.
THE OPINION OF CEO MORSELLI
Lucia Morselli, managing director of Acciaierie d'Italia, described the company as "healthy", but still in financial difficulties because "it has allocated all the resources and wealth generated to investments, which we have never stopped making and which we continue to do. Investments for the environmental plan that means our future. The shortage is that of the circulating currency, which is not born now but for two years. We are limited in the purchase of raw materials and upstream production ”.
He added that to guarantee "a future" to Acciaierie d'Italia "we need finance given the cost of energy". In this regard, Am InvestCo Italy would have signed a guarantee for 300 million euros to be allocated to gas supplies and guarantee industrial production beyond the minimum levels necessary for the protection of the plants.
“We are looking for financial resources so that the hot area goes to the maximum, obviously in compliance with environmental constraints”, declared Morselli. President Franco Bernabè, a former banker with management experience in Eni and Telecom Italia, said that the emission levels of Acciaierie d'Italia are lower than those of other European companies in the sector, without however specifying them.
THE WORDS OF THE FIM-CISL
Roberto Benaglia and Valerio D'Alò, respectively general secretary and national secretary of the Fim-Cisl, welcomed the promises of the government to support Acciaierie d'Italia, but also with skepticism given the vagueness of the commitment.
The trade unionists then ask "the company and the government that this support immediately translates into a corporate commitment to recover production, investments and safety on plants, goods and the ability to restart the iron and steel industry in Taranto which is literally sinking".
– Read also: Why does Acciaierie d'Italia aim at the Cig and not at development? What is the government doing on the former Ilva?
"The justifications of the top management on the increase in energy costs and liquidity difficulties are not enough", add the two, "to abandon the iron and steel plant of Taranto and the other sites of the group and with them the workers in extraordinary administration and the induced at the mercy of the crisis facing the group ".
HOW STEEL MILLS ARE WORLDWIDE
According to data from the World Steel Association, global steel production fell 5.9 percent year-on-year to 158.1 million tons in June. The decline is mainly attributable to China – the largest producer and consumer of steel -, whose output fell by 3.3 percent in June to 90.7 million tons.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/acciaierie-d-italia-aiuti-finanziari-governo/ on Thu, 04 Aug 2022 12:31:41 +0000.