There are currently four companies interested in taking over Italian steelmaker Acciaierie d’Italia, according to the Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. The potential investors are the Italy’s Arvedi, Ukraine's Metinvest, India's Vulcan Green Steel (Jindal Group) and German-based Steel Mont. In the meantime, Arvedi and Metinvest are considering whether to bid separately or act jointly.
The commissioners for Acciaierie d’Italia, Giancarlo Quaranta, Giovanni Fiori, and Davide Tabarelli, have prepared an industrial plan to be presented next week in Brussels, which, as SteelOrbis previously reported, would be used to obtain a €320 million from the EU. According to the industrial plan, 70 percent of this amount would be used immediately to cover the maintenance works. The industrial plan’s objective is to reach production of 5 million mt in 2025 with blast furnaces Nos. 1 and 2, then rising to 6 million mt between 2026 and 2027. Upon the shutdown of these two blast furnaces, blast furnace No. 4 together with two other electric furnaces will produce 4 million mt.
Looking at the current situation at Acciaierie d'Italia, the company’s Taranto plant is currently in a complicated situation, as its pace of production could result in a maximum output of 1.3 million mt, which is only 20 percent of the six million mt target that would allow the plant to break even. The only functioning blast furnace in Taranto is BF No. 4, which is operating at 70 percent of its capacity with 4,500 mt of pig iron produced per day, while blast furnaces Nos. 1 and 2 have been idled since August 2023 and January 2024, respectively. Moreover, the crucible of BF No. 1 needs to be replaced. At the Genoa-Cornigliano plant, however, the tin plate cycle has restarted.