Acciaierie d’Italia has begun the physical shutdown of the blast furnaces at its Taranto plant. Unions told Platts Energy on November 3. The move effectively marks the end of pig iron production at the facility, which was once Italy’s largest steel producer. The unions said the company had informed their representatives that contractor LIZ Italia had started switching off the burners that kept the blast furnace hot-blast stoves heated. All shutdown work is due to be completed by the end of the week.
The decision followed a ruling by Italy’s Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione) on October 30. The court rejected emergency appeals by Acciaierie d’Italia and Ilva, which is under extraordinary administration, against a Milan Court of Appeal order to halt the plant’s hot operations on environmental grounds. The order covers all hot-end facilities: blast furnaces No. 1, 2 and 4, as well as the coke batteries. All of them had previously been kept hot.
The Taranto plant, formerly known as Ilva, was once Europe’s largest integrated steelmaking complex. The facility has long been at the center of a legal, financial and environmental dispute. A reduction in its operations could significantly affect supplies of flat steel in Europe and trade in both raw materials — including coking coal and iron ore — and finished products such as hot-rolled coil.
Unions said that despite the winding down of pig iron production, rolling operations would continue for now, but intermittently.
Irregular operation of the rolling facilities may mean the plant is processing remaining stocks of semi-finished products rather than its own output. No pig iron has been produced in Taranto since early October, when the last operating blast furnace, No. 2, was shut down and placed in hot-idle mode. Furnace No. 1 has been out of operation since May 2025, when prosecutors in Taranto seized it following a fire and barred it from operating. Furnace No. 4 was shut down for repairs and was due to restart at the end of April, but this never happened.
The plant’s future remains uncertain. Binding bids to buy the company must be submitted by November 9. Antonio Gozzi, chairman of Federacciai and head of the Italian consortium considering a purchase of Acciaierie d’Italia, told S&P Energy by phone on November 3 that the consortium had completed its due diligence but was continuing to assess all available information given the complexity of the situation.
Gozzi said importing semi-finished products for further rolling could be a temporary solution, but was not suitable for the plant’s long-term operation.
“In the long term, Acciaierie d’Italia must produce crude steel. For now, importing semi-finished products for rolling may be an acceptable temporary solution, but it should not become a permanent model,” Gozzi said. “In the long term, ADI’s business cannot do without hot-end operations. It is important that they be decarbonized — for example, through electric arc furnaces,” he added.
By: Annalisa Villa