Siderurgy

Ex Ilva, Emiliano: meeting adjourned until 15 July to find agreement

Minister Urso: 'Full functionality of former Ilva blast furnaces by early 2026'

by Rome Editorial Staff

8 July 2025

Al ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy si è svolta una riunione sull’ex Ilva con tutte le amministrazioni coinvolte nell’Accordo di programma interistituzionale

4' min read

Key points

Emiliano: "Lowering the pace of decarbonisation"
Urso, today is a historic day for Taranto and the steel industry

4' min read

'We have adjourned, we should get through the day of the Services Conference at the Ministry of the Environment, to avoid being overruled by an AIA that sees the Region's opposition. We should meet again next Tuesday to find an overall definition'. So said the president of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano, leaving the meeting at Mimit on the programme agreement for Taranto on the former Ilva. The meeting with the local authorities ended with a postponement of the Services Conference, initially scheduled for Thursday 10 July. A solution that matured after a joint commitment emerged to sign, within the next week, an agreement between the parties currently meeting at the table on the former Ilva at Mimit.

Emiliano: 'Lowering the timeframe for decarbonisation'

"It was quite a satisfying day. We defined two scenarios: a first to maintain the strategic nature of the plant, as the most important in Italy, by lowering the timeframe for decarbonisation from 12 to 8 years,' Emiliano explained at the end of the table on the former Ilva at Mimit. 'A second scenario is related to the regasifier ship. Where there was no possibility of supplying the Dri furnaces with sufficient gas, it would not be possible to make them. So only three electric furnaces would be made, which would not allow the plant to play the same role.

Urso, today is a historic day for Taranto and the steel industry

"I believe that this is an important, decisive, historic day for Taranto, for the Italian iron and steel industry, and for industrial policy in our country," said Enterprise Minister Adolfo Urso on the sidelines of the round table on the former Ilva. "We have outlined together, in eight hours of continuous work, in full transparency, a solution that will now need technical investigations and also the final approval by the local authorities. And we have given ourselves an appointment for Tuesday morning when together we will meet here with the unions and then sign the agreement,' he added.

The minister: 'Full functionality of former Ilva blast furnaces by early 2026'

"The full functionality of all three blast furnaces in Taranto has been guaranteed for the first quarter of next year," Urso added. "First we do the ordinary maintenance of Afo4, then the extraordinary revamping maintenance of Afo2," and then the necessary work on Afo1 "when the release from seizure is ordered," the minister continued. "We hope that, also as a result of this collaborative climate reached with the local authorities, everyone will participate in the project - not of a government or the city of Taranto - but of Italy, and I call all institutions to full responsibility."

The minister, the extraordinary commissioners Giancarlo Quaranta, Giovanni Fiori and Davide Tabarelli, the president of the Apulia Region Michele Emiliano, the mayor of Taranto Piero Bitetti, the mayor of the municipality of Statte Fabio Spada, the president of the Province of Taranto Gianfranco Palmisano, the extraordinary commissioner of the Ionian Sea Port Authority Giovanni Gugliotti, and representatives from the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Health, among others, attended the meeting, either in person or via video link-up.

Mayor Taranto: Urso can't just pass the ball on former Ilva

"It is rather easy to pass the ball like this, there is serious reasoning to be done about the future of a territory that has given so much in terms of sacrifices. A territory that deserves to be compensated'. This is how the mayor of Taranto Piero Bitetti, arriving at Mimit, responds to the words of Enterprise Minister Adolfo Urso. Urso declared yesterday that the first choice on the steel giant is Taranto's and announced that today's meeting on the former Ilva will go on to the bitter end until a common decision is reached. 'This he says. We came,' he continued, 'here with extreme seriousness and responsibility. We need to understand what he is proposing to us, we need to understand the contents of a programme agreement to which we have never taken a preconceived position, we have never said no, but we have always said, let's go deeper'.

Mayor of Taranto: new tender for the former Ilva? Urso should be asked

About the need for a new tender for the former Ilva, as Il Sole 24 Ore writes today, 'you have to ask the minister. What I read on a page of the newspaper this morning means more time,' says the mayor of Taranto. 'I don't know about a new tender. The old tender included two electric furnaces. I have heard of 6 million tonnes of production, so it cannot be two ovens. You know that an electric furnace cannot produce more than 2 million tonnes, so it should be at least three," adds the mayor who thus passes the "ball" back to the government.

Urso posed 5 questions to local administrations

At the start of the meeting, Minister Urso posed five questions to the national and local administrations in Puglia. 'Do you agree on a decarbonisation plan within a congruous timeframe that is sustainable in technological, economic and employment terms?' was the first. The second was whether 'you agree to build the Dri pole in Taranto to power the electric furnaces? We thought of building it in Taranto but obviously it is not the only Italian location: if you agree with our hypothesis there should be at least three'. In light of the fact that 'the Dri pole needs a lot of gas', Urso asked: 'Do you agree with the construction of the regasifier ship?' adding as a fourth question: 'Do you agree with the construction of a desalination plant? Because in addition to gas, the plants need water, also in light of the Region's recent decisions on water supply'. Finally, as a fifth question, Urso asked whether 'we can proceed with production continuity under the AIA, to safeguard jobs and market share? The social forces, the trade unions, the productive forces ask me to decide together responsibly on the impact on the Italian production system of the decisions we are making and on the direct and indirect employment that would result. And on the basis of this responsibility and awareness, I ask you to decide together by giving me answers on what are the enabling factors for the development of the decarbonisation plan'.