Enrico Martino, spokesman for Italian steelmaker Ilva, has announced to labour unions that the blast furnace (BF) No. 2 at the company's Taranto's plant will be idled for three months from early July due to unfavourable market conditions. Accordingly, daily pig iron output at the Taranto plant will drop to 13,000 mt from the current level of 17,000 mt.
In line with the idling of BF No. 2, Ilva will also halt activity at the BOF shop No. 1 and reduce output at its agglomeration plant. 700-800 employees will be affected by the decision.
Recently, Ilva has also turned off its hot rolling mill No. 1 which had been restarted in late May as soon as magistrates freed up impounded steel stocks which included about 600,000-700,000 mt of slab. The hot rolling mill No. 1 has now been halted again as the slabs in question have been rolled.