A second attempt by Italian steelmaker Acciaierie d'Italia's (ADI) to temporarily suspend a court order issued in July that called for the closure of the plant's hot-end has been rejected by Milan's court of appeals.
The original order gave the steelmaker 90 days to shut down its hot-end, triggering a first appeal to grant a suspension of the order, which was swiftly rejected.
The second appeal argued that shutting down the hot-end could irreversibly damage the facilities and compromise any future restart, citing a technical assessment that it could cost around €830mn to restore the hot-end after shutdown.
ADI proposed keeping the installations in pre-heating mode, rather than fully switching them off.
The court rejected these arguments — it said the potential economic and industrial damage was secondary to the right to health of citizens.
Production at the hot-end was already in the process of being suspended by late September, the court document said. ADI said the irreversible deterioration it had warned of had not yet occurred.
The next key date for the future of the plant is 20 October, when Italy's Court of Cassation will consider another legal challenge filed by ADI.
