The future has an ancient heart for the former Ilva di Taranto.
The entrepreneur state returns to manage the largest steel industry in Europe and all the steel plants that the group owns in Italy.
The signing of the agreement arrived late in the evening and provides for a decisive public investment that will eventually guarantee full occupancy of the plant and reduce pollution for steel production.
The public hand enters the Italian company Am Investco with a double capital increase: a first increase of 400 million euros will give Invitalia, which is controlled by the Ministry of Economy, 50% of the company's voting rights.
The conditions precedent to the closing (of Invitalia's entry into AM InvestCo, a subsidiary of ArcelorMittal) include "the modification of the existing environmental plan to take into account the changes to the new business plan; the revocation of all criminal seizures regarding the Taranto plant; and the absence of restrictive measures, in the context of the criminal proceedings in which Ilva is accused, against AM InvestCo, as stated in a note by ArcelorMittal.
A second capital increase is scheduled for May 2022, which will be subscribed up to 680 million by Invitalia and up to 70 million by Arcelor Mittal.
Treasury Minister Roberto Gualtieri and Development Minister Stefano Patuanelli expressed satisfaction with the agreement that will have a double impact.
The complete absorption of 10,700 workers is expected at the end of the process.
And a decarbonization plan will start immediately through the start of steel production with less polluting processes.
The creation of a new production line outside the company perimeter (DRI) and of an electric oven inside the plant is planned, which when fully operational will be able to produce 2.6 million tons of product per year.
"About a third of steel production - Mef and Mise argue - will take place with reduced emissions, thanks to the use of the electric furnace and cutting-edge technology, the so-called" pre-reduced ", in line with the guidelines of the Next Generation EU . The reduction in pollution achievable with this technology is in fact 93% when fully operational for sulfur oxide, 90% for dioxin, 78% for fine dust and CO2 ".
It will now be necessary to see if the agreement reached satisfies the territory, with the union of Taranto and many neighboring municipalities that had suggested other interventions.
The government has announced that it will set up a table with local authorities to accompany and monitor the transition.
And if the full employment promised at the end of the trial will manage to dispel the concerns of the 'blue overalls', even if in the next five years the temporary redundancies would be covered - but the press releases released in the evening make no mention - by the social safety nets of which the State stands surety.
The official announcement of the agreement is intended to lift the veil also on other aspects of the affair, starting with the governance which should initially be equal with the president and CEO expressed one by Invitalia and the other by Mittal.
There are no official communications on this point either.
For the Taranto plant, however, it is a return to the past.
Established in 1905, Ilva passed to Iri in 1929 and was sold to the Riva only in 1995, with the privatization plan.
The commissioner is dated 2012. ArcelorMittal arrives in 2018 and now comes a new turning point.