Eight -hour summit with local authorities. Adolfo Urso: “Historical day”. Two hypotheses on the table, but he will talk about it on Tuesday with the unions
After eight hours of meeting with the Region, Municipality, and other local institutions the minister Adolfo Urso It speaks of a historic day for Taranto and for Italian steel. But if on the one hand there are words of hope, on the other the shadows that continue to hover on the ex Ilva are heavy.
Two hypotheses are on the table, but both involve huge challenges as the minister explained. The first provides for the construction of three electrical ovens, powered by three iron pre -rod systems (DRI), which would require a re -pressing ship to ensure gas supply. A complex technical solution, but which could ensure production continuity, maintaining employment levels. The second, less ambitious, proposes to move the production of dri to another location, (probably Gioia Tauro). In this case, of course, the impact on 8,500 plant workers would be enormous. Not to mention the survey.
The reality is complex. After the fire of May 7, which damaged the altheroh 1 and led to its kidnapping by the Taranto prosecutor, the production underwent a dramatic collapse. The situation aggravated with the planned detention of Fete 4, the only altherhorn remained active, from 7 to 10 July. Today, the risk of not even reaching the threshold of two million tons of steel in 2025 is concrete. Impossible the goal of the six million tons established in the program agreement.
The negotiations with Baku Steel, the Azero investor who seemed destined to revive the situation, are at the deadness. Despite the commissioners of steelworks of Italy have denied a total disengagement, the uncertainty about the integrated environmental authorization (AIA) and on the commitments made in the program agreement they put a brake on the negotiation. And in the meantime, the concern for the alternative plan that provides for the transfer of part of the production, and in particular the DRI plant, to Genoa, drastically reduced Taranto. A hypothesis that makes local workers and associations tremble, who see in this move a possible industrial desertification of the city.
From the union other alarms. The request for public or participatory management of the plant remains a priority for the FIM, Fiom and Uilm acronyms, which have denounced the insufficiency of the 200 million euros provided for the maintenance of the plants and for the productive relaunch.
But the proposal of a nationalization, also supported by some opposition political forces, clashes with the position of the minister Ursowhich recalled article 43 of the Constitution to exclude the expropriation of the plant, considering the Ilva not one of the nationalizable companies by law.
In short, the node always remains the same: how to combine environmental needs with the employment and industrial ones? The mayor of Taranto, Piero Bitettihas repeatedly underlined the need for a “serious reasoning” that does not download everything in the area. “Taranto cannot continue to be the scapegoat of a sector that struggles to evolve,” he said,
For its part, Urso He made a direct call to Taranto: “We cannot tie the fate of Italian steelurgery to the non -decisions of others”. The minister’s words look like an ultimatum. And although the appointment of July 15th with the unions represents an opportunity to find a solution, the time holds and the risk of losing yet another opportunity seems more and more tangible.
The next few weeks will be decisive. Not only for the future of Ilva, but for the future of Taranto, which seems to falter in uncertainty. The city, which has lived for decades on the alternative between the heavy industry and the environment, is now faced with a crucial question: will it be able to find a way out of the crisis, or will we witness its definitive transformation into an industrial desert, with very serious repercussions on a social and economic level?
