Ex Ilva writes to prosecutor: blast furnace authorised late, now plant at risk

Tension is high over the former Ilva and the risk that the steel plant could come to a halt. The delay in authorising the securing of blast furnace 1 at the Taranto plant of Acciaierie d'Italia, formerly Ilva, after last Wednesday's fire 'may have compromised the possibility of respecting the industrial timetable, with negative repercussions on the lay-off figures'. This is one of the passages of the report sent by Acciaierie in extraordinary administration to the Taranto public prosecutor's office, which has seized the blast furnace without the right to use it. This was learnt from sources close to the file. Executed between late Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning, the seizure was then validated on Friday by the public prosecutor Francesco Ciardo, who also entered three AdI executives in the register of suspects, accusing them of culpable fire and dangerous throwing of things.

According to sources close to the file, the failure to give the go-ahead to a series of safeguard actions in the necessary time, given that the blast furnace was subject to a 'sudden stop', created a real 'blockade'. In particular, AdI is informed by the Public Prosecutor's Office that 'the opinion expressed by Arpa Puglia, in its capacity as technical auxiliary of the Public Prosecutor's Office, has strongly conditioned the authorisation of the interventions, effectively hindering the recovery and safety of the plant'.

Taking a step backwards in the affair, after the fire that affected one of the plant's pipelines where the high-temperature hot air passes through, which then, injected into the blast furnace, causes the combustion of the coke and thus the melting of the ore and the production of pig iron, Acciaierie - currently governed by three extraordinary commissioners because it is in extraordinary administration - 'requested authorisation for urgent interventions to make the plant safe and in particular the cowpers and the blast furnace crucible. In these cases,' it is stressed, 'action must be taken within 48 hours to avoid structural damage. And particularly in the case of melt management, it is necessary to lower the charge of the blast furnace and pour out the melted materials remaining in the crucible. Unfortunately, these operations were not authorised in time, making standard execution procedures no longer applicable.

On this point, AdI pointed out to the Public Prosecutor's Office that "today, after more than 120 hours from the event, it is no longer possible to proceed with the casting of the spindles, with the consequence that, in the event of restarting, extraordinary, complex procedures would have to be adopted, with absolutely uncertain outcomes. The requests, submitted under conditions of extreme urgency, were exclusively aimed at protecting the integrity of the plant and not at resuming production. Despite this, only a few activities were authorised by a subsequent order of 10 May'. It was Saturday afternoon, in fact, that the public prosecutor Ciardo gave the go-ahead for the execution of the urgent activities, which were planned on Sunday and put into execution starting today, 12 May.

Speaking last Saturday in Taranto, on the sidelines of the inauguration of the Tecnopolo del Mediterraneo, the Minister of Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, had said: 'If the measure will also inhibit plant maintenance, which must be carried out in the next few hours, jeopardising the restoration of the blast furnace forever, you can imagine what the consequences may be. And he had added: 'If the seizure of the blast furnace also includes the inhibition to use it, we will necessarily - and I have already announced this to the trade unions - have to foresee a large number of workers being laid off and a significant reduction in production.