Milan Court Orders Shutdown of Blast Furnaces at Italy's Largest Steel Plant

A court in Milan has ruled that blast furnaces must be shut down at Italy's largest steel plant, located in the city of Taranto, finding that the company had failed to carry out any significant modernization of its equipment for decades — a failure the judges said directly led to the current pollution crisis.

Under the ruling, the company was also denied its request for an extension to remove asbestos from the plant's grounds. Judges concluded that the measures taken by the company were insufficient and ineffective in genuinely reducing pollution levels.

The Taranto plant, once among Europe's largest steelmaking facilities and still the biggest in Italy today, has been mired in legal, operational and financial troubles for years. The plant is currently under external administration after ArcelorMittal withdrew from its ownership, and the Italian government has spent several years searching for a strategic investor to take over.

Notably, in order to acquire a stake in the Italian company, ArcelorMittal had previously been forced to sell off some of its own assets, including its plant in Ostrava.

Legal battles over environmental violations at the Taranto facility have dragged on for years. Courts first ordered the blast furnaces shut down back in 2012, at the time to curb excessive air pollution. Since then, Italian authorities have repeatedly tried to resolve the situation, at one point even offering the company's top executives protection from criminal prosecution.

Environmental pollution and its impact on residents' health have long fueled anger among many in Taranto. Yet others fear the economic fallout of scaling back or halting production altogether, as the plant remains one of the region's largest employers.

Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz