The Italian Ministry of Business and Production, the Tuscany region and the municipality of Pembino have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Metinvest Mining and Metallurgical Group to develop the metallurgical sector in the region.
According to official information from the Italian Ministry, the memorandum was signed with Metinvest Adria SpA, Metinvest B.V., Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche SpA, to ensure conditions for the restart of the steel plant in Piombino.
It is specified that this is “a decisive step for the restart of the Pembino site, which will play an increasingly central role in the national steel industry plan.”
It is also reported that the purpose of the industrial project is to develop, construct, own, operate, and maintain an environmentally sustainable plant for the production of finished steel products derived from the processing of ferrous metals into hot-rolled coils for further processing, which will be built in Pembino on an area of approximately 260 hectares. The project will be financed through external financing and government grants.
The Pembino steel complex is one of the main steel processing centers in Italy and Europe, and the Ministry of Business and the Made in Italy project aim to support the resumption of rail production and simultaneously launch the production of hot-rolled coils in order to restore operations, preserve employment and reduce imports of steel products to Italy from non-EU countries. This has renewed interest in the feasibility of the integrated industrial development project presented by Metinvest Adria S.p.A., Metinvest B.V. and Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche S.P.A., the ministry said in a statement.
The signatories to the agreement undertake to immediately conduct an agreed feasibility study aimed at determining the conditions for stable and long-term operation of the hub, as well as increasing the industrial and production potential of the territory, giving preference to solutions that are most compatible with the urban environment.
When fully operational, the project will employ about 1,500 direct and indirect workers and will have a significant economic impact on other related industries at the regional and national level, the information says.
The Ministry of Business and Made in Italy will coordinate a working group involving all competent national and local institutions to stimulate the creation of manufacturing plants.
Potential investors: Ministry of the Environment and Land and Sea Protection, Tuscany Region, Municipality of Piombino, Port, System Authority, State Property Agency.
The Protocol defines the conditions for concluding a Program Agreement within four months in accordance with Article 252 bis of the Consolidated Environmental Law.
Italian Minister of Business and Production Adolfo Urso said that “the agreement marks a decisive step towards the restart of the Pembino complex, which will play an increasingly central role in the context of the national steel industry plan, together with Taranto, Terni and the steel mills of northern Italy.”
Eugenio Giani, President of the Tuscany region, added that “the memorandum of understanding is the first and necessary signal of the investment proposed by Metinvest and Danieli, as well as a concrete sign of cooperation between the institutions to guarantee the future of steel production in Italy.”
“Tuscany is a land open to foreign investment, and the Pembino region has been favored by metallurgy since the Etruscan times. The Metinvest-Danieli project will have the support of the Tuscany region. (…) We hope that another investment project of JSW Steel Italy can also be realized, given the interdependencies and possible complementarities between the production of flat products (by Metinvest) and long products (by Jsw). We have guaranteed significant investment in the port and infrastructure, an opportunity that the Metinvest-Danieli duo has clearly recognized, and we will work over the next 4 months to reach a binding programmatic agreement with a timeframe for all,” explained Giani.
Pombino Mayor Francesco Ferrari said that “this agreement is a real opportunity for a restart that will return Pombino to the center of the national and international steel industry.”
Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest B.V., said: “The agreement with the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy marks a significant step towards creating one of the greenest and cleanest plants in Europe.
“This project, with a capacity of about 3 million tons of steel, will play a crucial role in Italy’s transition to green technology by introducing sustainable and environmentally friendly industrial methods. In addition, it will help to increase the utilization of our iron ore mining and processing facilities in Ukraine, leading to their modernization to produce high-quality pellets. Pembino is a cutting-edge project that, once completed, will become a real example of how cooperation between foreign industrial groups and Italian institutions can yield positive results,” Ryzhenkov emphasized.
Danieli Group President Gianpietro Benedetti said that “this agreement is the first important result that will lead to the creation of a plant that will be one of the first fully digital and will have an important positive impact on employment.”
“Metinvest is a vertically integrated group of steel and mining companies. The Group’s enterprises are located primarily in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro regions.
The main shareholders of the holding are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
