Business · Companies · 13 hrs ago
Ex-Ilva plans electric furnaces as decarbonisation could cut 6,000 jobs
Italy plans to convert the Taranto steelworks to electric furnaces as part of a shift away from its current high-emissions production.
The plant is operated by Acciaierie d’Italia, formerly known as Ilva, and the government says it wants steel production to continue in Italy.
Closing the hot area could eliminate about 6,000 jobs, reducing the roughly 7,000 workers in Taranto to about 1,000.
The government says funds are available for decarbonisation, but the Cassation Court’s ruling has made an already difficult process more complicated.
The plant’s sale process is still under way, with binding offers due by 8 November from Jindal and a group of Italian steelmakers led by Federacciai.
Buyers had been waiting for the court’s decision to shape their offers, including whether they would include the hot area.
The next step is to receive the offers and decide who will take over, while the plant’s special commissioners must shut down the hot-area equipment.
The ex-Ilva steelworks is to move to electric furnaces as part of a decarbonisation plan.
The change is expected to cut about 6,000 jobs at the Taranto site, reducing its workforce from about 7,000 to 1,000.
The Italian government says it remains committed to maintaining steel production in Italy and supporting Taranto’s industrial future.
The Cassation Court ruling has complicated the process, according to the government.
Potential buyers Jindal and a group of Italian steelmakers are due to submit binding offers by 8 November.
- Who
- Ex-Ilva, its workers, the Italian government and potential buyers Jindal and a group of Italian steelmakers.
- What
- The plant is to move to electric furnaces as part of decarbonisation, with about 6,000 jobs expected to be cut.
- When
- The article was published on 29 October 2026. Binding offers are due by 8 November.
- Where
- The steelworks is in Taranto, Italy.
- Why
- The government says the change is intended to continue steel production in Italy while decarbonising the plant.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni reiterated the government’s commitment to electric furnaces and decarbonisation in the Senate.
The government met with trade unions at Palazzo Chigi, according to the article’s reference to the meeting on the previous Tuesday.
Corriere della Sera reported that the Cassation Court ruling had complicated the ex-Ilva process.
Jindal and the Italian steelmakers’ group are due to submit binding offers to acquire the company.
- Expected job cuts
- About 6,000
- Taranto workforce
- About 7,000, expected to fall to 1,000
- Proposed technology
- Electric furnaces and direct reduced iron (DRI)
- Binding offers deadline
- 8 November
- Potential buyers
- Jindal and a group of Italian steelmakers led by Federacciai
What people are saying
The government confirms, once again, its commitment to ensuring the continuity of steel production in Italy and, in this context, to ensuring industrial prospects in Taranto, with electric furnaces and decarbonisation, as reiterated on 14 October by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Senate.
It is evident that this ruling, whose content must be examined in depth, further complicates a path that has always been increasingly difficult and strewn with every kind of obstacle.