Former Ilva, the Italian consortium requests a new tender: talks at Palazzo Chigi in September

On August 18, Federacciai, together with fourteen member companies, filed an expression of interest for the former Ilva plants. The signatures are broad: Siderweb lists among the signatories Arvedi, Marcegaglia, Feralpi, Duferco Travi e Profilati, AFV Acciaierie Beltrame, Acciaierie Venete, Alfa Acciai, Lucchini RS Holding and ABS Acciaierie Bertoli Safau. The association’s president, Antonio Gozzi, described the participation of the national steel industry as “practically almost everyone.”

The scope of the offer, however, is narrower than the name “former Ilva” might suggest: the consortium is interested only in the cold rolling area of the Taranto plant. The hot area — the blast furnaces, i.e. the part of the cycle that produces steel from ore, and at the same time the part at the center of the environmental dispute — remains excluded.

The three sticking points. The companies have put three conditions to the government: the request for a new tender, the price of the cold rolling area, a legal shield on past liabilities. These are three questions different in nature. The first is procedural and touches on the legitimacy of the process already underway; the second is economic; the third asks the legislator to separate the future buyer’s liability from that of previous management. None of the three has so far received a public response from the government in the material available.

Palazzo Chigi’s response. On August 20, the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni replied in writing to the associations, announcing talks for September on the expression of interest and a dedicated meeting on the Taranto area, reports ANSA. The announced appointments are therefore two and distinct: one on the offer, one on the territory. The letter contains the formula that defines the executive’s position:

“Maintaining a significant steel production capacity is an objective of national importance” — Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister

The timeline is tighter than the negotiations. The Milan Court of Appeal’s decree provides for the closure of the hot area within ninety days of July 27, 2026, the date of notification to the extraordinary administration. The count leads to the second half of October. The announced talks are for September: between the moment the government sits down with the companies and the judicial deadline only a few weeks remain, and the issue affected by the deadline — the hot area — is precisely the one the consortium has not asked to take over.

The comparison with Jindal. The Italian offer is not alone. The special commissioners will have to compare the consortium’s expression of interest with that of India’s Jindal Steel. This is where the request for a new tender takes on weight: a reopened procedure would change the terms of comparison between a party aiming at part of the plant and a foreign industrial player that moved first.

Trade unions have spoken out: the statements from Fiom, Fim, Uilm and Usb are the basis for the account published by Collettiva, which has been following the matter from the labor side. The material available does not report employment figures associated with the consortium’s offer: how many people would remain employed in the cold rolling area, and under what contracts, is not stated in any of the public documents circulated so far.

Three things therefore remain unknown and all decisive: the price the consortium is willing to pay, the government’s position on the legal shield, the fate of the hot area after the ninety-day deadline expires. September’s talks are convened on an expression of interest, not on a binding offer: the distinction, in a sale process, is the difference between an intention and a commitment.

The account by MF-Milano Finanza on the filed document confirms the picture of the fourteen companies and the scope of the initiative.