Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio on Wednesday, November 13, said the Italian government will oppose the suit filed by ArcelorMittal on Tuesday to rescind its contract to take over the former Ilva steel works, including its Taranto-based plant in the south of Italy. We will oppose the request presented by ArcelorMittal to rescind the contract, Di Maio told local media. "The contract must be respected", he added.
"ArcelorMittal is not respecting the industrial plan and today it is not producing the 6 million mt to which it had committed", Italian economic development minister Stefano Patuanelli said.
On November 12, at a Milian court ArcelorMittal's lawyers filed the formal act with which they began the procedures to exit their contract. The document lists the same reasons for interrupting the contract that have been presented to the government, and it is explicitly written that "even if legal protection were restored, it would not be possible to execute the contract".
ArcelorMittal's suit was received by the president of the Milan court, Roberto Bichi, while the first hearing will be heard on May 6, 2020. The former Ilva group's three extraordinary commissioners are expected to file an appeal by Friday stating that the juridical conditions do not exist for the global steel giant to pull out of the takeover deal.
Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal has been gradually shutting down production in Taranto. According to local unions, the plants are running at 30 percent of their capacity and coal and iron ore shipments to Taranto have been halted.