Former Federacciai president criticizes handing of Ilva crisis: “Taranto cannot exist without an integrated supply chain”

Thursday, 14 November 2019 17:48:48 (GMT+3)   |   Brescia
       

Antonio Gozzi, former president of Italian steel producers' association Federacciai and also president of Duferco Group, has criticized the Italian government and politicians in general for the way the crisis relating to the former Ilva steel company is being discussed and handled. In an article published by the website Piazza Levante, Mr. Gozzi accused politicians of "not compensating for their cognitive gap by resorting to experts" but wanting instead "to continue to manage complex things with their own total ignorance". He accordingly said that he wanted to shed light on some fundamental points "that industry experts know perfectly well" but "which it is good to remember without any presumption, but only with a sense of respect for reality and truth".

1) Mr. Gozzi underlined that it is not true that it is impossible to produce steel from an integral cycle without seriously polluting the surrounding area. In all European countries, he said, there are blast furnace plants that, like the Taranto plant, coexist with residential areas without causing any damage. The difference between the Taranto plant and the others is that the first, after being expropriated from the Riva family (July 2012), did not enjoy significant environmental investments until ArcelorMittal arrived.

2) It is not true that steel can be produced using gas. At most, the former Federacciai president said, it can be produced using direct reduced iron (DRI) plants, which however, are only possible in countries where the cost of gas is low (Algeria, Libya, Qatar, Venezuela, etc.).

3) Taranto without an integrated supply chain makes no sense because it is impossible to feed the rolling mills with semi-finished products that are purchased externally. According to Gozzi, closing the hot area in Taranto would mean closing the entire plant. "The rumor has circulated that ArcelorMittal would like to keep the mills and leave the hot area to the Italian state, so that the state can take care of its extraordinary maintenance and environmentalization, and then ArcelorMittal can eventually take it back later". But, according to Gozzi, the proposal would be unacceptable. "What skills does the state have to rebuild blast furnaces and assume the coking and sintering operations? To whom would the state sell the slabs that are produced by the hot area? To ArcelorMittal? And at what price?" he asked.

4) Some electric arc furnaces could be installed to at least partially replace blast furnaces, Gozzi admitted. However, there would be the problem of finding the scrap to feed them. "A large additional demand like that of Taranto would risk skyrocketing scrap prices, damaging both the competitiveness of the steel of Taranto and that of the electric furnaces in the north of Italy," explained the former Federacciai president, adding that "moreover, not all the steel currently required by the market can be produced by electric arc furnaces. For some purposes, the steel produced through the integral cycle is irreplaceable".

Antonio Gozzi concluded by stating that any decision on Ilva, besides being clear, must be economically sustainable as well as environmentally acceptable. Finally, he stressed that judges have nothing to do with industrial policies. "The task of deciding which environmental regulations to respect and how to make plants work or not work is a responsibility of public administration and not of judges,” he said.


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