The Liberty Magona plant in Piombino, Italy, will remain idled at least until August this year, as announced yesterday, June 17, to local trade unions by Renaud Moretti, CEO of Liberty Downstream Synergies and responsible for the management of the Liberty plants in Piombino (Italy), Liège (Belgium) and Dudelange (Luxembourg).
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, layoffs of over 500 employees have started for a period of at least three weeks at the Magona plant, and from mid-June the activities of all production lines at the plant have been suspended due to a shortage of feedstock. As stated by local unions Fim, Fiom and Uilm, "The debt that the Liège plant had with ArcelorMittal has been reduced from €50 million to €8 million," and therefore it should be paid off within two to three weeks. Then, "ArcelorMittal should resume supplying coils to Magona," they said. Consequently, the plant should also remain shut down in July, while in August and September it should resume producing, hopefully at full capacity.
Mr. Moretti said that the Liberty Group is working to find other financial solutions and to expand its suppliers. There is also the hypothesis of a synergy with the Liberty Galati plant (Romania), which, however, would take time to develop. Finally, Moretti ruled out the possibility of the Piombino plant being sold to other companies, at least in the short term.