The blast furnace No. 2 ("Afo 2") of the former Ilva plant in Taranto, southern Italy, will be shut down within two months. Taranto court judge Francesco Maccagnano has rejected the request made by Ilva in Extraordinary Administration with which the extraordinary commissioners asked to be able to carry out works for securing the blast furnace No. 2, where a worker died in June 2015. The order to shut down the plant had already been given by the Taranto Public Prosecutor's Office on July 9, after the judge at the preliminary hearing had rejected a request for cancellation of the seizure of the plant.
Judge Maccagnano stated, "Having the works carried out and therefore still keeping the plant in operation would mean exposing workers to a condition of danger since the plant itself is in risky conditions. The blast furnace No. 2, one of the three (Afo 1, Afo 2, Afo 4) currently operating in Ilva, will therefore be stopped and switched off."
According to what emerged after the meeting between the judicial custodian Barbara Valenzano, the Carabinieri of the Ecological Operational Unit and the company, it will take about two months to proceed with the halting of the plant.
"ArcelorMittal takes note of the decision of the Court of Taranto, delivered to Ilva in Extraordinary Administration, to reject the revocation of the seizure of the blast furnace No. 2. The company has prepared a calendar for the closure of blast furnace No. 2 as requested," reads a company note. ArcelorMittal, which is managing the plant, "is not a party in the legal proceedings, but it is in any case investigating the repercussions that this decision may have for the operations of the Taranto plant." The company "hopes that an alternative solution will be found as the operation of the blast furnace No. 2 is an integral part of the sustainability of the Taranto site."
Currently the blast furnaces in Taranto are producing about 9,000 metric tons of cast iron per day, which is a volume far from guaranteeing the achievement of the ArcelorMittal’s declared goal of 5 million mt a year.