Taranto's Ilva on the Verge of Total Shutdown
06/23/2015 - According to a report by Kallanish, Ilva's Taranto plant could be on the verge of a total shutdown after the public prosecutor’s office ordered the seizure of the operation’s blast furnace no. 2 (BF2) on Thursday 18 June.
The seizure is the first outcome of the on-going investigation concerning an incident in which one of the company’s employees lost his life. According to local reports, ten suspects are currently being investigated for involvement in manslaughter.
The public prosecutors’ decision follows both the company’s inability to identify the cause of the incident and to adopt new measures to increase safety, union sources say.
As of 19 June, “a technician from the company which built the BF2, turnkey contractor Paul Wurth, is investigating the causes of the incident,” FIM-Cisl union representative, Cosimo Panarelli, tells Kallanish.
“The technician will present a report by next week, and the company then plans to file it with the public prosecutors’ office to evaluate if it will be necessary to shut down BF2 ”, Panarelli adds.
Taranto’s operation is running at historically low levels since the beginning of its revamping early in 2015, and with the BF2 shutdown, output could fall to 7,400 tonnes per day.
However, Ilva’s commissioners are not only mulling the possibility to start the BF2 shutdown, which would take up to two weeks, but to also to stop the BF no. 4, sources close to the company disclose.
According to Panarelli, the possibility of keeping only a single BF operational would not result in optimum safety conditions. Thus, if the shutdown is confirmed, the three commissioners could order the complete closure of the site.
Source: Kallanish
The public prosecutors’ decision follows both the company’s inability to identify the cause of the incident and to adopt new measures to increase safety, union sources say.
As of 19 June, “a technician from the company which built the BF2, turnkey contractor Paul Wurth, is investigating the causes of the incident,” FIM-Cisl union representative, Cosimo Panarelli, tells Kallanish.
“The technician will present a report by next week, and the company then plans to file it with the public prosecutors’ office to evaluate if it will be necessary to shut down BF2 ”, Panarelli adds.
Taranto’s operation is running at historically low levels since the beginning of its revamping early in 2015, and with the BF2 shutdown, output could fall to 7,400 tonnes per day.
However, Ilva’s commissioners are not only mulling the possibility to start the BF2 shutdown, which would take up to two weeks, but to also to stop the BF no. 4, sources close to the company disclose.
According to Panarelli, the possibility of keeping only a single BF operational would not result in optimum safety conditions. Thus, if the shutdown is confirmed, the three commissioners could order the complete closure of the site.
Source: Kallanish
