Posted on 28 Nov 2018
ArcelorMittal Italia ceo Matthieu Jehl has told local newspapers La Stampa and Il Secolo XIX that the company will invest €150 million ($169.6m) in its northern Italian facilities of Cornigliano and Novi Ligure.
Last week Jehl told Kallanish in an interview that starting in January, between 20,000-25,000 tonnes of coils will be shipped from Fos-sur-Mer in the South of France to the finishing lines of Cornigliano. In the coming months meanwhile, coil shipments from Fos-sur-Mer to Ilva’s Northern Italian facilities will increase to around 40,000 tonnes/month, or almost 500,000 tonnes next year.
The Cornigliano unit will focus on tinplate and zinc-coating, while Novi Ligure will concentrate on the supply of automotive grades of product. Tinplate production in Cornigliano will be raised from the current 100,000 tonnes/year to 170,000 t/y. This will be sold mostly in Italy but the company is also considering the possibility of exporting to the Middle east and the Maghreb, Jehl said in the interview. He also added that ArcelorMittal’s new Italian entity intends to produce and sell steel in Italy and for the Italian market.
Meanwhile, the steelmaker is preparing to boost production at its Taranto facility. It is strengthening relationships with local suppliers by paying outstanding sums owed to them by the previous administration, Kallanish learns from suppliers. Jehl had confirmed last week that ArcelorMittal is now targeting to push Ilva's production level to 6 million tonnes/year in the first half of 2019.
The company has also purchased via tender 3 vessels containing a total of almost 50,000t of imported slab last month, market sources reveal to Kallanish. Part of this will be dedicated to plate production in Taranto that is set to resume at the beginning of next year. The facility had stopped producing plates in August 2017.
