Alessandro Trivillin, CEO of Italian special steel producer Acciaierie Bertoli Safau (ABS), a subsidiary of Italian plantmaker and steel producing company Danieli, has stated that the electric arc furnace (EAF) at its steel mill in the central Croatian city of Sisak will be restarted during the month of November. Mr. Trivillin made his comments in Sisak during a meeting with the city's mayor. ABS purchased the Sisak mill in June this year from US-based Commercial Metals Company (CMC) for about $30.4 million.
According to the business plan communicated in July by the ABS CEO, in the first stage the Croatian subsidiary will employee only about 100 people compared to almost 1,000 workers who worked in Sisak in the past.
The decrease in the workforce is also due to the strategic choice of getting rid of welded pipe and seamless pipe production at Sisak in order to focus on the core business of special steel production. In the current month of October, the seamless pipe mill will be completely dismantled, while the disassembly of the pipe welding line will also be completed. Both facilities have been already sold to a Mexican buyer.