The Italian government has asked ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, to consider investing in or buying the troubled Taranto-based Italian steel producer Ilva. This has been confirmed by ArcelorMittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal at the annual Steel Success Strategies conference in New York.
"We have been invited by the Italian government to look at it. That does not mean that we are going to acquire it," he said on Tuesday, June 17.
Assessing ArcelorMittal's possible interest in Ilva will be a very long process, with social, political and economic problems making the situation very complex, Mittal said.
Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, representatives of ArcelorMittal, accompanied by Piero Gnudi, the Italian government's new special commissioner for Ilva, visited the Taranto-based plant. Other parties interested in investing in Ilva include the Italian companies Marcegaglia and Arvedi, as well as India-based Jindal Steel & Power.
As stated in May this year by Antonio Gozzi, president of Italian steel producers association Federacciai, Ilva's existence is under threat since it is losing money at a rate of €60-70 million a month.
In August 2012, Taranto judge Patrizia Todisco ordered a production halt at Ilva due to environmental hazards, following which some 1.7 million mt of finished and semi-finished steel stocks worth between €800 million and €1 billion belonging to Ilva were seized by court order. The Taranto judges also ordered the confiscation of €8.1 billion worth of property and goods belonging to the Riva family in May 2013.