The annual meeting of the Italian steel producers’ association Federacciai was held in Bergamo on November 10, 2025. Federacciai president Antonio Gozzi opened the discussions after the welcome address by Giovanna Ricuperati, president of Confindustria Bergamo, and a message from Giorgia Meloni, prime minister of Italy.
"We are increasingly convinced that the industry’s survival game is being played in Brussels," Gozzi said. "There, great choices must be taken in order to avoid the geopolitical, economic and industrial irrelevance of Europe in a world that is changing at supersonic speed." He emphasized the need to start again in Europe, by bringing industry back to a central position on political agendas, correcting environmental policies and moving away from the complications of the Green Deal, the carbon border adjustment mechanism and ETS quotas.
To guarantee a future for the Italian and European steel industry, Gozzi continued, it is necessary to leverage four issues:
- fair conditions in international trade;
- technological neutrality in the energy transition with a more pragmatic and less ideological approach;
- competitive prices of energy, especially renewable or decarbonised;
- an increase in the availability of ferrous scrap and other metals (e.g., DRI).
In a scenario in which Italy's steel production is 90 percent based on electric arc furnaces, having reduced its CO2 emissions by 66 percent since 1990 and having a carbon intensity 40 percent lower than the EU average, the Green Deal attempts seem to have "produced very little", said Gozzi. "Growing emissions in the world are 10 to 20 times higher than those reduced at European level" and "the ideological and extremist regulation of the Union has instead contributed decisively to the loss of competitiveness and market share of many sectors of European industry without having acquired any technological advantage in any sector of the green economy," he noted.
The Federacciai president also underlined the need to review international trade rules, especially safeguards, a request to which the Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy of the European Commission Stéphane Séjourné responded positively, promising a timely review in order to defend the European and Italian steel industry from global overcapacity, as "Italian steel is of strategic importance for the European Union," he said.
Finally, Gozzi emphasized that, among the many critical issues facing the Italian steel sector, it is necessary to distinguish between the crisis of Ilva and the crisis of the steel industry, and reiterated Federacciai’s commitment to supporting the Italian government on saving this industrial pillar. First of all, it is necessary to build a dialogue with local administrations. After having set these foundations, it will be possible to propose the Taranto site to other private investors.
Following Gozzi's speech, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Cohesion and Reforms, Raffaele Fitto, and Stéphane Séjourné spoke. The annual meeting ended with a round table discussion attended by Flavio Cattaneo, CEO of Enel, Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO and general manager of Fincantieri, and Pietro Salini, CEO of Webuild. During the discussion, it was highlighted how excessive bureaucracy has caused a lack of focus on people working in industrial sectors, how any attempt to regulate the energy market is a "patch" in a country where energy resources are scarce, and finally the need to think of a long-term plan, focusing for example on nuclear power.
Finally, regarding Italian steel production data for 2024, Italy produced 20.0 million mt of crude steel in the given year. Finished steel production, on the other hand, amounted to 15.5 million mt, 6.8 million of which were flats and 9.2 million were longs. The turnover of the sector amounted to €40-60 billion per year and the direct impact on employment amounted to 70,000 employees.