End of hesitation and turning point for Steelworks of Italy,former Ilva, the group controlled by the multinational ArcelorMittal which includes a Taranto the largest steel factory in Europe but which, due to lack of liquidity and guidance, has been in a pre-agonistic state for months. Yesterday Invitalia, the public shareholder that holds a minority stake in the former Ilva, crossed the Rubicon by asking the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy to start the procedures for theextraordinary administration. It's theantechamber of the commissionerate. Invitalia clearly maintains that the private partner, ArcelorMittal, has shown itself "unavailable to guarantee business continuity or to dissolve the joint venture in a balanced way and in compliance with current regulations", and that it has decided to make this move "after having every possible attempt to reach an agreement with the private partner has been made in recent months".
ArcelorMittal's counter-move was immediate and, through Acciaierie d'Italia, filed an "application for agreed with reservations, with request for protective measures". In 60-120 days the actual request for an arrangement with creditors will be presented, a tool that is used to deal with a company crisis in a different way from that requested by Invitalia.
We will see what will happen in the next few hours but the slope is that which leads to the administration of a commissioner which however will not be able to erase the responsibilities of ArcelorMittal, as also emerged from the CEO's recent unseemly statements in Parliament Lucia Morselli, but also the negligence and inability of the Government. That the prime minister Giorgia Meloni has never personally dealt with the crisis of the largest steel plant in Europe speaks for itself and cries out for revenge.
