Taranto and Florange: steelmakers struggle

“ILVA shuts down, 5,000 sent home,” reads the headline in Corriere della Sera. The wrangling over Europe’s biggest steel mill, under investigation since a probe found the plant’s enormous levels of pollution caused thousands of deaths in the nearby city of Taranto, came to a head when prosecutors ordered the closure of some production facilities and issued arrest warrants for seven managers. In retaliation, the owners shut down the plant and sent home 5,000 workers. The move could affect other plants and related industries and trigger the loss of more than 20,000 jobs. Trade unions have seized management offices in protest.

In Taranto, the population is split between the unemployment scare and health concerns, La Stampa reports. “Crushed between the huge costs of a clean up and an extremely dangerous socio-political situation, the city risks a real civil war.”

But concerns are nationwide. “What is the message we are sending to those wondering if investing in Italy is still worthwhile?” asks Il Sole 24 Ore, arguing that “the crusade of a few judges cannot decide the fate of one of the key sites for the country’s industrial policy.” According to the employers’ federation newspaper, the ILVA crisis –

will cheer up European competitors. A bounty for German and French groups. In France the state is so aware of the strategic value of the steel industry that it advocates nationalising two plants that can’t find buyers as they are deemed too uncompetitive and polluting. Employment first: the French say openly what in Taranto is forbidden to even whisper.

However, in Paris, the government is locked in a battle with ArcelorMittal, which wants to close the Florange blast furnaces in Lorraine. It is even threatening to temporarily nationalise the site, home to 630 jobs. "Brilliant idea or mission impossible?" saysLiberation. President François Hollande will meet Lakshmi Mittal, the head of the firm, on November 27 to "convince the boss of the group to sell its entire site, that is to say, both its furnaces and crude steet processing facilities, the most modern part of the site, which is still active," added the newspaper.

The pressure is peaking between the government and Mittal. A week before the deadline for restarting work at Florange, the threats are flying. The first threat is that of nationalisation, if the steel group does not save the site in the Moselle region. The second, says it is out of the question to sell the facilties, as they are an integral part of France's industrial infrastructure.