Taranto’s blast furnaces fully shut as deadline for binding plant bids begins

Key Facts

All facilities in the hot area at the Taranto steelworks had been shut down by the morning of November 6, according to ANSA, citing Acciaierie d’Italia General Manager Maurizio Saitta. Saitta told unions: "As of this morning, nothing is still burning; all facilities in the hot area have been shut down." The blast furnace shutdown process began on November 3, after the Court of Cassation rejected appeals against the closure of the hot area, ANSA reported. The decision covers blast furnaces N1, N2 and N4, as well as the coke batteries, all of which were in preheating mode, according to EUROMETAL. Completion of the shutdown marks the plant’s transition from keeping the furnaces hot to halting activity in the area that produces pig iron.

The shutdown is based on a court order issued by the Milan court requiring hot-area operations to cease within three months unless asbestos is removed from the site and particulate emissions are brought within safe limits, according to ANSA. The agency said the court made continued operations conditional on meeting these environmental and health requirements. On October 29, ANSA reported that the legal shutdown deadline of December 15, 2026, was linked to the expected filing of the Court of Cassation ruling. Operations then began on November 3 after the appeals were rejected, before Saitta announced on November 6 that all hot-area facilities had been shut down. The mid-December deadline was the legal timeframe cited in the earlier report before implementation began; the furnaces have now been shut down ahead of it.

The last furnace producing pig iron at Taranto was furnace N2, which was shut down in early October and placed in preheating mode, according to EUROMETAL. The platform added that no pig iron had been produced at the plant since it stopped, meaning production of the material had ceased before the shutdown of all hot-area facilities was announced in November. The decision covers furnaces N1, N2 and N4, along with the coke batteries, the facilities that had been kept in preheating mode. This sequence places the end of pig iron production in October in the context of the full shutdown, which began on November 3. It also shows that the continuation of some plant operations does not mean the resumption of pig iron smelting or production.

Despite the blast furnaces being shut down, union sources said rolling activity was planned to resume intermittently. The strip line was expected to operate through December 14, then stop again before restarting in January for about a month, according to Adnkronos, citing union representatives. This schedule applies to the rolling line and does not alter the announcement that hot-area facilities have been shut down or that pig iron production has stopped. The continuation of rolling for a limited period means some steel-forming operations may continue after the furnaces are shut down, under the plan reported by the unions. December 14 marks the end of scheduled operation for the strip line before its next stoppage.

The sale of the plant is proceeding alongside the shutdown, with ANSA setting November 8, 2026, as the deadline for binding bids. The agency said Jindal, CE Industries and Flacks had expressed interest in buying the plant. The deadline comes after the furnace shutdown process began on November 3 and before the November 6 announcement that all hot-area facilities had been shut down. The timing of the bids makes the sale process a direct part of the phase in which the site’s future is being determined after smelting has stopped. The available information did not report the outcome of the bidding or a decision on the buyer.

ANSA said the plant’s future and the implementation of the decarbonization plan to convert it to electric production are subject to considerable uncertainty, while the fate of jobs at the plant and among its suppliers also remains unclear. These concerns come in the context of a meeting held by the Italian government with unions on August 4 to discuss the impact of the Milan court’s decision on production and jobs, according to Italy’s Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy. The ministry said at the time that talks would continue the following day at a Taranto roundtable scheduled for August 5. In a 2025 report on the plant, ISPRA said the legal limit for steel production was 6 million tonnes a year, against production capacity of about 10 million tonnes a year. The agency also said that at the end of 2025 the facility was licensed to operate 3 of its 5 furnaces: AFO1, AFO2 and AFO4.