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Carlo Calenda, Action Leader and former Minister of Economic Development, in whom he dealt extensively with the Ilva case in the 2016-2018 biennium, managing the tender that led Arcerlor Mittal to acquire the company, shoots zero on the signed agreement yesterday between Invitalia (controlled by Mes) and Mittal himself. A solution that foresees a state expenditure of 1,080 million euros in two years. In fact, Invitalia will subscribe a capital increase of 400 million euros from Am InvestCo, which manages the steel plants, within this year and a subsequent increase by a maximum of 680 million until 2022. Through these operations the Italian State will reach It will first control 50% and then 60% of the stake in Am InvestCo, while Mittal will participate in the capital increase for a maximum of 70 million euros in the second phase of the transaction.
Mittal won the New Year’s Lottery because he had an armored contract after a tender for which he had to commit 4,000 million and 200 million euros, of which 2.4 at the environmental and industrial level and 1.8 to repay creditors between State, he declared in the morning to Radio Anch’io microphones.
Can you better specify the terms of the May 2018 deal?
Mittal had won the tender to take over Ilva at a time when the steel industry was doing very well. Furthermore, thanks to its control over Italian steel, it avoided the entry of Jindal, its feared competitor. For the Italian side, the advantages consisted of the payment of 1,800 million to creditors, of which 800 million to the State, 1,200 million in industrial investments and 1,200 million in environmental investments. In addition, the protection of the salary levels prior to the agreement was guaranteed for the 10,700 workers of the company.
But then something went wrong …
The May 2018 agreement was fully implemented by Minister Di Maio in the Conte 1 government and entered a crisis only when the principle of the criminal shield was questioned. A rule that had not been given to Mittal but to state administrators to be able to make the recovery plan so as not to risk lawsuits until the recovery is complete. The abolition was demanded by Barbara Lezzi of the 5 stars after the negative result of the European electoral movement.
And at this point?
At this point everything froze. It should be noted that Mittal up to that moment perfectly complied with the environmental obligations provided by the coverage of the mining parks. Thus we arrive in March 2020 when the cases are withdrawn between the parties and an agreement is reached that is not made public to continue the negotiations.
To reach the return of the state certified by the agreement of December 10 …
A solution that gives all the advantages to Mittal, who will have the CEO of the company and, therefore, control over company policies, with the majority state taking note of the decisions that will be made. So far, in addition, Mittal has spent only a part of the 1,200 million foreseen by the agreement for green investments, which were spread over a period of 5 years.
But steel production will decarbonize
This is not true either and Minister Patuanelli himself acknowledged that production will continue in the current modalities also because even with the activation of an electric blast furnace, the plant will be fed with energy from coal power plants and therefore the environmental impact. is still negative. A complete decarbonisation of electricity production would require a switch from coal to gas, but this implies an additional investment of around 4 billion. In practice, to make the price of gas economically sustainable, a 30% discount on current rates would be needed. The project could be financed with funds from the Next Generation EU plan, but at the moment there is no trace of this hypothesis.
