There is a small glimmer of the ex's future Ilva of Taranto, which does not remove the clouds over the future of the steel plant but perhaps can give the government and the unions time to negotiate with ArcelorMittal, avoiding traumatic production interruptions.
Surprisingly, the new CEO of ArcelorMittal, Lucia Morselli, declared yesterday - in a meeting with the Governor of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano - that the group has "the intention of continue to run the company in the best possible way until at least May“. Why exactly May? Why just yesterday the Court of Milan has set the discussion on the contractual withdrawal requested by the company in seven months' time, without which it is very difficult for ArcelorMittal to leave Taranto.
However, the crux of the redundancies. Having to cut production due to the steel market crisis, ArcelorMittal plans to resize the Taranto hot area and reduce staff by around 5 thousand units, a hypothesis that both the unions and the government consider socially unsustainable and which they will try to change in negotiations with the company. However, Morselli has ensured that both employees and related suppliers will be regularly paid for what has been done so far.
It seems to understand that, having more time available, it can therefore be opened for Ilva in Taranto a negotiating table, even if the unknowns remain large and the government – apart from the redundancy fund and the reduction of the rent of the plants – doesn't have much to offer ArcelorMittal.
For now, the question of restoring the system remains unresolved criminal shield, because Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has failed to absorb the dissent of the Apulian grillini, who threaten not to vote on the decree and to make the Government lose votes on a crucial provision, with respect to which even the increasingly shaky leader of the Five Stars, Luigi Di Maio is unable to provide insurance.
The expected Council of Ministers on Ilva will not be held today for the Venice emergency that the Government is committing and the general picture on Taranto seems slightly less gloomy, but from here to say that the Ilva case is on its way to a solution.
