According to local Italian media reports, a fire burst out on May 11 at Italian steelmaker Acciaierie d’Italia’s Taranto plant. No workers were injured, while the incident caused a mechanical failure of a conveyor belt used to transfer coke to blast furnace No. 4, the only blast furnace remaining in operation in the entire plant, which has had to be idled.
Blast furnaces No. 1 and 2 had already been idled in August 2023 and January 2024, respectively, as SteelOrbis previously reported.
According to the technicians in charge, the maintenance work is not expected to last long, but the fact remains that, at the moment, Italy's largest steel plant is completely inactive for the first time in its history. Even before the fire, BF No. 4 was already operating at reduced capacity, producing only 4,000-5,000 mt of pig iron per day against a capacity of 16,500 mt.