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Outcry over official’s cancer rates comment

Enrico Bondi, the commissioner of Italian steel company ILVA, will meet environment minister, Andrea Orlando, after blaming the rise in cancer rates in Taranto on the "high rates of smoking and alcohol consumption" in the southern port city and not pollution linked to one of the company's mills.

Published: 15 July 2013 14:50 CEST
Outcry over official's cancer rates comment
An investigation into pollution at the Ilva steel plant in Taranto began in July 2012. Photo: Donato Fasano/AFP

Bondi was brought in to lead the rehabilitation of the ageing Ilva steel plant, Europe’s biggest mill, which is thought to have caused an environmental disaster. An investigation into its environmental impact on people living in Taranto began in July 2012.

Bondi will appear before Orlando on Monday in order to “clarify” his remarks, Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper reported.

In June, police seized €8.1bn in steel assets from the Riva family, which owns the plant, over pollution linked to dozens of deaths at the mill.

The plant's future has been contested for months, with prosecutors calling for it to be closed and many of the workers asking that it remain open.

Ilva represents 40 percent of Italy's steel production and was once a symbol of Italian industry. 

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STEEL

German steel giant rejects ‘high cost’ state support

German industrial giant Thyssenkrupp on Friday rejected state participation to support it during the pandemic, an option favoured by unions but judged too costly by management.

Published: 12 December 2020 11:26 CET
German steel giant rejects 'high cost' state support
Thyssenkrupp's offices in Duisberg. Photo: Ina Fassbender / dpa / AFP
“State participation off the table,” Klaus Keysberg, the group's financial director, told the German daily Rheinische Post on Friday.
   
Keysberg blamed “high costs” in the long term of government assistance, “due to the interest payments and the terms of repayment.”
   
Already weakened by years of cut-price competition from China in the steel industry, Thyssenkrupp has further struggled with the effects of the pandemic that caused business activity to plunge.
   
The company said in mid-November it would cut an additional 5,000 jobs as part of its restructuring plan, bringing the total to nearly 11,000, to be spread out over several years.
 
   
Thyssenkrupp chief executive Martina Merz has not ruled out state assistance.
   
The powerful IG Metall union had organised rallies in October to demand a rescue plan from Berlin.
   
But the government was never enthusiastic, despite their acquisition of stakes in the airline Lufthansa and tour operator TUI, which also had business ravaged by Covid-19.
   
“I don't believe that nationalisation is the right response at the moment,” Germany's Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said in October on Thyssenkrupp.   
 
But national and regional governments favour more traditional aid structures, such as subsidies, or moves to convert to production of so-called green steel.
   
Discussions will continue to find alternatives.
   
A takeover of Thyssenkrupp's steel activities is still on the cards. British steel giant Liberty, founded by industrialist Sanjeev Gupta, launched a takeover bid in October.
   
Discussions are also underway with Sweden's SSAB and India's Tata Steel.
   
An alliance with fellow German steelmaker Salzgitter to create a national steel champion is also being considered. But these options won't be decided until “spring 2021”, Thyssenkrupp said.
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