(Finance) – The restart plan of Acciarie d’Italia, owner of the former Ilva factories, was presented today to the unions and provides for a return to financial stability by the end of the year. This is what we read in a note at the end of the meeting.
The Plan, we read in the note, is divided into three phases: “construction site” phase, one blast furnace phase with orderly management and two blast furnace phase with orderly management. The pillars on which the relaunch project is based are: restoration of identified plants, with an economic intervention of around 400 million euros (80% in Taranto); management of a production plan that starts from 1.5 million tons/year and reaches 4 million tons/year after the summer, with the start-up of the second blast furnace in Taranto. Also in Taranto, a hot rolling train will be active, while all the cold rolling will go to Genoa, reaching 450 thousand tons/year after the summer and 600 thousand tons/year in Novi Ligure; lean and efficient organization; balanced and supportive management of the workforce, also through a specific program to improve the skills and professionalism of workers. “To achieve the objectives set out in the Restart Plan, AdI in as – reads the note – hopes for strong collaboration and participation of all parties involved. To this end, the company has identified a series of tools which will be detailed, with the goal of reaching a formal agreement with the unions by mid-June”.
“Securing the plants and keeping production active, having the support of the main customers and suppliers, was the preliminary step for us. Now it is necessary to involve workers, giving them visibility of the next steps, making them participants in the Restart Plan and transmitting security and trust to them and their families. This will be precisely the central aspect that can be appreciated by potential buyers”, declared Giuseppe Cavalli, General Director of Acciaierie d’Italia in AS.
“What we have exposed to the unions today is the need to collaborate in the interests of the company and the workers. It is essential to work side by side, with transparency and without tactics, to face the challenges we face. Dialogue and collaboration between the union and management, respecting each other’s roles, are fundamental to finding shared solutions that can benefit everyone”, he added. Claudio Picucci, Human Resources Director of Acciaierie d’Italia in AS.
“Today the restart plan of the former Ilva was presented and it was clarified that it is not an industrial plan. More resources are needed to guarantee production, maintenance of the plants and full employment, without further burdening the workers, directly and related industries”, declared Loris Scarpa, national steelworks coordinator for Fiom-Cgil, in a note. “The extraordinary maintenance interventions that will be carried out, site by site, between now and the end of the year were illustrated. While after the summer the commissioning of blast furnace 2 is expected. Despite this, 2024 will be the year of the lowest steel production – he adds -. The discussion did not go into the merits of what will happen in 2025, nor the possible buyers and there was no mention of additional resources for decarbonisation. This is a point that the Government will have to clarify.” “There was agreement on the issue of health and safety in the factories and in related industries and this will have to be the priority when the systems are put into operation. In the next few weeks there will be plant-by-plant meetings to verify and discuss priority interventions, then a further meeting before the discussion on redundancy payments at the Ministry of Labor – he concludes -. There is a change of direction in terms of trade union relations, we expect words to be followed by deeds.”
“Today the restart plan of the former Ilva was presented and it was clarified that it is not an industrial plan. More resources are needed to guarantee production, maintenance of the plants and full employment, without further burdening the workers, both direct and related”, he declares in a note Loris Scarpa, national steelworks coordinator for Fiom-Cgil. “The extraordinary maintenance interventions that will be carried out, site by site, between now and the end of the year have been illustrated. While after the summer the commissioning of blast furnace 2 is expected. Despite this, 2024 will be the year of the lowest production of steel – he adds -. The discussion did not go into the merits of what will happen in 2025, nor about possible buyers and there was no mention of additional resources for decarbonisation. “There was agreement on the topic of health and safety in the factories and in related industries and this must be the priority with the commissioning of the plants. In the coming weeks there will be meetings plant by plant to verify and discuss the interventions priorities, then a further meeting before the discussion on the redundancy fund at the Ministry of Labor – he concludes -. There is a change of direction in terms of trade union relations, we expect words to be followed by deeds.”
Adi’s restart and maintenance plan “has been illustrated for each individual plant. It will then be explored in detail, in the weeks to come, with the RSUs of the individual sites. Obviously, not all plants will be able to restart at the same time, given the low tonnage that can be achieved and the resources available, but this confirms the disastrous condition inherited after the previous management”, states the Fim Cisl in a statement released following the meeting between the company and the unions which was held today.
For Fim National Secretary Valerio D’Alò “today’s meeting was very useful, we appreciated the pragmatic approach of the company managers and we were finally able to discuss in concrete terms some of our proposals or receive clarifications on issues that we have been denouncing for some time As Fim, we have proposed the possibility of evaluating, given the positive moment in demand for steel, also the use of slabs purchased for the production of sheet metal (PLA) to satisfy some requests that we know are coming, for the Genoa site and for the pipe factory, awaiting greater production of AFOs from the Taranto plant”.
D’Alò specified that in the illustration of the Plan “the pipe factories and the PLA (sheet metal production plants) were not mentioned among the plants that will receive immediate maintenance interventions. This worries us because, in our opinion, they are very important plants in the overall economy of the Group and in which we need to invest in the short term”.