ArcelorMittal Italia’s steel mill 1 at the former Ilva plant in Taranto will not be halted today, January 23, but will continue its operations for two more weeks or at least until the safety of steel mill 2 is guaranteed. ArcelorMittal Italia's step back from its decision announced earlier this week to halt operations at steel mill 1 came after the labor unions, following three explosions which occurred at steel mill 2, asked the company to suspend its unilateral decision to stop steel mill 1.
For the halting of steel mill 1, ArcelorMittal had announced layoffs for 250 people out of the current 477. Meanwhile, the Italian government and the steel giant are looking to reach an agreement by January 31, which will be necessary to overcome any obstacles relating to redundancies and to immunity from prosecution, thereby preventing Italian courts from deciding on the withdrawal from Ilva announced by ArcelorMittal in early November last year.