Italy Accuses Arcelor of Blackmail in Clash Over Steel Plant
(Bloomberg) -- A standoff between Italy and ArcelorMittal over the future of the European Union's biggest steel mill escalated Tuesday, after the country's economic development minister lashed out at the company.
“We won't allow ArcelorMittal to blackmail the government by threatening over 5,000 job cuts,” economic development minister Stefano Patuanelli wrote in a Facebook post. “Commitments should be upheld.”
On Monday, ArcelorMittal started legal procedures to hand the mill in the Southern city of Taranto back to the Italian government after Rome annulled a criminal immunity over pollution before a planned cleanup is completed in 2023.
“The company's industrial plan hasn't been realized,” Patuanelli said. He added that the company is losing more than 60 million euros ($67 million) a month due to lower-than-expected production.
The standoff has proved a major headache for the coalition led by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, already under pressure by opposition leader Matteo Salvini. Closing the plant would risk thousands of jobs and may even have an impact on the national economy. Salvini has called for the government to resign in case jobs will be lost and said the country's industrial future is at stake.
A meeting between Conte and ArcelorMittal officials to discuss the issue, initially scheduled Tuesday, has been postponed to Wednesday, according to news-agency Ansa. Conte will also asked to refer to Parliament over the case.
Finance Minister Roberto Gualtieri said the government will do “everything it can” to avoid a “dramatic outcome.”
The former Ilva plant was acquired by ArcelorMittal for 1.8 billion euros from the government last year with the pledge of a 1.2 billion-euro investment to improve the mill's environmental performance by 2023. The plant's pollution has long been under scrutiny and linked to higher cancer rates around Taranto.
In his Facebook post, Patuanelli said Italian laws already include a prosecution waiver for cases such as the Ilva plant but ruled out norms that would specially protect ArcelorMittal.
To contact the reporter on this story: Chiara Albanese in Rome at calbanese10@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Alessandro Speciale, Karl Maier
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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