Is there room for reshaping the agreement between the shareholders?
All contracts can be reviewed, but the choice is up to the shareholders. Not me. For my part, or for other board members, it would be an invasion of the field.
Is Italy a strategic country for ArcelorMittal? Or is it willing to speed up exit times in advance of the 2022 envisaged by the agreement?
I am not ArcelorMittal and I cannot express myself in their place. Having said that, all the choices they have made so far show their deep interest in staying. They are the largest steel operator in the world and they know what to do with a steel mill. They had to undergo all the colors and they resisted everything. If they had wanted to disengage, they could have done so without problems. You were spoiled for choice as to when to unplug. The same day I was appointed, for example, the government revoked the criminal shield granted to ArcelorMittal. What better time to leave the scene and ask for compensation?
Why did ArcelorMittal deconsolidate Italy from the group just over two years after the start of the adventure in Italy?
The plants of the former Ilva are for rent. I believe that, in the face of the difficulties encountered in the first year of management, a public-private partnership was deemed essential to complete the acquisition from the commissioners who manage them on behalf of public ownership.
The Minister for Economic Development, Giancarlo Giorgetti, is working on a plan for steel. Will it also involve the Taranto plants?
I do not know. The plan for the steel industry has been drawn up for 20 years. I hope it’s the right time. As for the former Ilva, the agreement between public and private, including the industrial plan, is very detailed. I can only respect it.
The steel entrepreneur Giovanni Arvedi has studied an alternative project to replace the current systems with more compact and less polluting electric furnace ones. Do you believe it?
I do not know it but it is necessary to verify in practice its compatibility with existing systems. Not only. Any transformation should foresee the steady growth of production from the current 4.5-5 million tons up to 8 million. And all must be compatible with the territorial energy balance. The same ecological compatibility results can be obtained without destroying everything invested so far and what will have to be invested in the coming years by environmental law. Starting with the hundreds of millions spent on covering raw materials warehouses, for example. And this without counting the commitments on the level of the workforce, which provide for the return to full employment once the 8 million tons are reached thanks to a mix of production technologies, including the new blast furnaces envisaged in the industrial plan, which give much more employment to the electric ovens.
Last Friday the Minister of Ecological Transition, Roberto Cingolani, denied, by decree, the extension of the terms for some environmental interventions, scheduled for 30 June. What are you going to do now?
In time of Covid and with the relative generalized extension measures, it does not seem to us a right decision. This is why yesterday morning we appealed to the Lazio TAR.
The European Union has revised Italy’s NRP, excluding that European funds can finance the use of gas for the former Ilva, saying instead that the measures implemented must support the production of electric hydrogen from renewable energy. How will you get out?
I give you a preview: the plants of the former Ilva are already able to produce hydrogen, which can be used in the production of steel through an integral cycle. In a short time there will be news on the use of hydrogen in the production line. It will be a virtuous example of a highly sustainable circular economy.
One of the major investments in the pipeline is the refurbishment of blast furnace 5, the largest in Europe, which has been shut down since 2015. At what point are you?
We are in the planning phase. It takes two and a half years, three, in line with the recovery plan.
Relations with the government, the representatives of Invitalia, the city of Taranto, the suppliers are difficult. Wasn’t there a chance to have less conflicted relationships?
Beyond the often bellicose public declarations, relations are based on mutual respect, because everyone is aware of the great progress made in these two years. The real problem, however, is that the former Ilva remains a great company and, as such, a great center of power. Every year, between income and expenses, 10 billion in cash flows are managed. These are the real stakes, which are tempting to many. The environment has nothing to do with it.