Posted on 23 Aug 2018
Italy-based special long steel producer Aferpi is set to restart production under its new owner, Indian steelmaker JSW, at the end of August after two years, the company and labor union sources told S&P Global Platts Thursday.
“This is a historical moment for the company because we can finally look to the future. Under the leadership and ownership of a serious international company we can produce again. We will start with the rail mill, our core business, and then we will restart all the other rolling mills with the aim of regaining market share little by little in all sectors from rails to the automotive,” Davide Romagnani, a representative of the FIOM union said.
The production of rails is expected to restart on August 24 with stock materials and then it will be fed with new semis as 18,400 mt of blooms are expected to arrive at Piombino port on August 29, the company said in an email.
The other lines of bars and rod are expected to restart by mid-October with the semis also provided directly by JSW, the company and the unions said.
“At the beginning of next week around 50 workers will resume working at the mill, cleaning the facilities, and then we will restart the reheating furnace as well as the rolling mills”, Romagnani said.
According to JSW’s industrial plan, in the second half of this year, Aferpi will produce 57,000 mt of rod (total design capacity 600,000 mt/year), 50,000 mt of bars (total design capacity 300,000 mt/year) and 75,000 mt of rails (total design capacity 350,000 mt/year). By the end of 2020, the company forecasts production of 235,000 mt of rod, 230,000 mt of bars and 300,000 mt of rail a year.
JSW bought Aferpi from Algeria’s Cevital at the end of July after months of speculation. With the acquisition, JSW finally gained a foothold in the Italian and wider European markets, after attempting to acquire Ilva, Italy’s largest flats producer, but losing out to ArcelorMittal.
Located in Piombino, Tuscany, Aferpi is a longs producer with rails as its main business. JSW has been one of Aferpi’s main blooms suppliers since the Italian mill’s hot end was shuttered in 2014.
JSW also plans to install two new electric-arc furnaces with a combined capacity of 3 million mt/year to produce semis for longs and also flats production, with production planned to start within 18 months. JSW will also consider the possibility of building a third EAF, but that will depend on market needs. Before the EAFs are operational JSW will feed the Aferpi rolling mill with blooms and billets from its mills in India.
JSW will not only maintain longs output at Aferpi, but will also produce hot-rolled coil for both the Italian and Northern European markets.
