(To Massimiliano D'Elia) Ilva di Taranto, towards the closure. The state guarantee for a bridging loan of 400 million euros, through Sace, has been skipped, nothing has been included in this regard in the Liquidity Decree. Meanwhile ArcelorMittal has suspended payment of the rent. Signals that do not bode well. Economic development ministers next week Stefano Patuanelli and Labor Nunzia Catalfo they will meet the top management, the extraordinary commissioners and the unions.
ArcelorMittal in the months in which attention had fallen due to the pandemic had begun to lay off workers from its plants in Italy, only in Taranto 3200 units, and to battle with the unions of the various acronyms on the issue of safety in the places of work, following the preventive measures envisaged by the pandemic emergency.
The purpose of Mittal, Sole24Ore writes, has always been to launch an investment plan that provided for the State to join the holding AM Investco with a minority share of Invite her. Now Mittal, without any guarantee, threatens to disengage from the initial agreement, risking a penalty of 500 million euros to be paid into the coffers of the Italian State which could be doubled if it comes out before November 2020, a hypothesis strongly supported by some exponents of the Movement 5 Stars.
The government would therefore be thinking of a plan B, with the involvement of private partners and with a predominant role of the state.
One of the reasons that pushed Mittal to think about the exit from the administration of the former Ilva plant in Taranto is the progressive decrease in the demand for steel due to the blockade of the "automotive" industry due to the pandemic. At the base there is also the cost of the finished product which is no longer competitive compared to the productions made in China and India.
To suffer from the steel crisis in Taranto there is, however, also the third Italian port of call that in the golden age the transit of goods from Ilva (80 percent) but also from Eni and other small businesses in the south served at full speed.
Huffington Post, in this regard, heard the president of the Ionian Port Authority, Sergius Priest"We are in a phase of transition and transformation that must have already taken place, but Covid has postponed everything ".
The transformation. By the summer, container terminal traffic will restart, with a capacity of 2-2,5 million containers. A very important piece of the port, that of the multi-sectoral pier it is in the hands of the Turks of Yilport, the thirteenth global operator by volume of activity and first in 2018. To understand the weight of the Turkish holding, just think that it owns 25% of Cma Cmg, the third largest maritime carrier for container traffic worldwide. In Taranto the Turks have been holding a concession since last August for 49 years with a 1.900-meter quay. The Turks will manage 20-25 percent of the port transit.
With the reduced production of Ilva which has gone from 80 to 40 percent, the Turks could rise to 30-35 percent in transit control, Sergio Prete specifies.
Priest then explains: "it all depends on what happens to the ex Ilva. Before the seizure of 2012, we were the third largest port in Italy with over 40 million tons, now we have fallen below 20 million. This year was to be the turning point with the launch of the Mittal plan, but now there is talk of a reset of this commitment and then Covid has complicated everything".
Adds Priest: "Mittal's decision will be decisive to understand the programming because the uncertainty that determined the Ilva plant did not allow an overall port planning".
As far as possible said Prete we have tried to revive the fortunes of the port with the terminal entrusted to the Turks and with the tourist hub thanks to the presence of cruise ships. A lot of traffic will also come from Eni to transport the oil present in Basilicata.
But the port of Taranto has also opened to the Chinese, who entered Italy in silence, through the Ferretti Group, world leader in the design, construction and sale of luxury motor and pleasure yachts. But not everyone knows that there86% of the Ferretti group is in the hands of the Chinese Weichai, a well-known Chinese company that operates in the field of the production of auto parts and heavy vehicles. Ferretti would now point to an area of disused harbor, the former Belleli of 150-160 thousand square meters to build fiberglass and carbon hulls and superstructures, but also to create a research center focused on the production of models and molds.
So Mario Turco, the undersecretary M5s to the Prime Minister with responsibility for economic planning and public investment, to which Conte entrusted the "Cantiere Taranto" project: "The installation of the Ferretti group in Taranto would be a great opportunity for the territory for development and economic conversion for our business fabric ".
It is certain that Taranto could potentially become a pearl for the whole Mediterranean and allow Italy to be able to look towards Africa with greater vigor, becoming a point of reference as a world hub for goods to and from the Black Continent.
Too bad we have a port of the highest level (proof of this is the gradual and worrying positioning by Turks and Chinese) but not an adequate railway line and even less an airport worthy of a city that between tourism and industrial potential could really aspire to return to old favors of Magna Graecia.