Former Ilva: the Court of Cassation upholds the seizure of Blast Furnace 1

Blast furnace 1 at the former Ilva site in Taranto remains under seizure. Following two rejections of the request to lift the seizure by the Taranto Public Prosecutor’s Office last year and the rejection by the investigating magistrate of Taranto, Mariano Robertiello, last February, the Fourth Chamber of the Court of Cassation also rejected the request on 13 June.

The company had appealed to the Supreme Court, and yesterday, 12 June, the appeal was heard in a hearing before the Fourth Chamber, presided over by Donatella Ferranti. The Court’s reasoning behind the decision will be known in 30 days, and the company will decide on its next steps once it has read the reasoning. Sources close to the company point out, however, that the technical investigations into the plant ordered by the judicial authorities were completed last April.

In his ruling on 12 February, rejecting the application to lift the seizure of the blast furnace, Investigating Magistrate Robertiello wrote that ‘the application to lift the seizure is unfounded and must be rejected’. Furthermore, the investigating judge noted on that occasion that ‘according to established case law, seizure for evidential purposes must be maintained whenever the property subject to seizure retains a concrete, current and not merely potential capacity to serve as a source of evidence’. In fact, ‘it is sufficient,’ said the investigating judge, ‘that there remain investigations of a non-marginal nature, the conduct of which requires the physical preservation of the asset in its current state’.

The former Ilva has appealed to the Court of Cassation, arguing that the continued seizure of Blast Furnace 1 is unlawful as it contravenes the legal principles governing the matter, namely the principles of proportionality, adequacy and graduality of the precautionary measure. As the seizure of the plant is for evidential purposes, the company has argued that the investigation must be conducted as quickly as possible. The release of the blast furnace is also crucial for the Taranto steelworks to return to normal operations in the coming months – it will take at least eight months to restore the plant to working order – with three blast furnaces in operation, given that No. 2 is currently operational and maintenance work on No. 4 will be completed by the end of the month; however, the commissioners will have to decide whether to bring it back online in July or wait longer, depending on the progress of negotiations regarding the sale of the company to a new investor.

At the time of the fire, which caused no injuries, there was also friction between the company and the judicial authorities because the latter had not given the go-ahead for certain urgent measures proposed by the former Ilva to try to limit the damage to the plant. The case was also raised in Parliament several months ago by Minister Urso. In fact, on 12 March, the minister said in Parliament: ‘Every day that blast furnace 1 remains shut down due to its seizure – a seizure resulting from a fire that occurred in May 2025 – results in losses of €4 million’.