Metinvest pulls out of the Piombino project
The Ukrainian group is reducing its stake in the joint venture for the new steelworks from 75 per cent to 15 per cent and is seeking partners. Trade unions and the regional government are calling for a state-owned entity to come on board to safeguard the industrial complex and the funds already allocated
The challenge of reviving the Italian steel industry is becoming increasingly complex. Following Taranto, Piombino too has become bogged down, with the trade unions on high alert and the €3.2 billion project to build a new steelworks with an electric furnace – promoted by the Ukrainian group Metinvest – now lacking financial stability and in need of new investors. On 5 November, at a meeting convened at the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Metinvest made it known that the difficulties in steel production encountered in Ukraine – where some of its steelworks have recently been bombed – mean it cannot commit to the project with the expected level of investment: for this reason, the group intends to reduce its stake in the Metinvest-Adria joint venture – set up with its Italian technology partner Danieli – from 75 per cent to 15 per cent, to make way for a new partner.
On the table (see *Il Sole 24 Ore* of 4 November) are non-binding offers from JSW Steel Italy, which is owned by the Indian entrepreneur Sajjan Jindal, who already controls the former Lucchini steelworks in Piombino; and an offer from a private equity fund active in the infrastructure sector. One of the two bidders is interested in acquiring Metinvest’s entire stake.
“Within eight weeks – and therefore by the end of the year,” states Luca Villa, Chief Executive of Metinvest-Adria, in a statement, “an industrially and financially sustainable solution will be identified.” This deadline is described by the Ministry, led by Adolfo Urso, as “crucial to ensuring certainty regarding the project’s future”. In the meantime, Metinvest is committed to continuing the design work and the authorisation process “in order to minimise the time taken to commence construction”, he states.
For the trade unions Fiom, Fim and Uilm, which called a 24-hour strike yesterday, this is a major blow to the future of the 800 workers at JSW Steel Italy (out of 1,260) who, under the programme agreement signed by the company, were due to transfer to Metinvest-Adria once the new steelworks had been built. “The government has declared this project to be of strategic importance; it cannot simply be wiped out with a stroke of a pen,” say Loris Scarpa, national steel industry coordinator for Fiom-Cgil, and Mauro Macelloni, from the Fiom-Cgil secretariat in Livorno. “ ‘Where is the national steel industry plan promised by Urso? What we are facing is yet another endless industrial crisis, another region and 1,400 workers with no future.’
The CGIL stresses that ‘JSW has never convinced us’ and appeals to the Government: ‘It must step in and find a way to carry out and finance the project regardless: the workers have been on short-time working since 2009 and want to get back to work’.
