India’s JSW Steel has acquired the Italian mill Aferpi in Piombino, part of Algeria’s Cevital.
Mumbai, India, May 19, 2018 – After two and a half months of negotiations handled with the help of president of the Region Enrico Rossi together with the Region’s staff and the ministry, Piombino can finally restart,” Italian Minister of Economic Development Carlo Calenda also announced late on 17 May on Twitter.
A formal meeting between Cevital’s lawyers and JSW Steel took place in Rome ten days ago to discuss the final details of the deal. This led to the signing of the final agreement last night. The definitive industrial plan will now be presented for approval to the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (Mise).
The unions are now expecting a meeting with the company which has said that it is willing to share its proposed industrial plan and discuss the projects behind the relaunch of Piombino. “Our negotiating work starts now as we will need to understand the challenges of this re-launch. We are delighted to be able to work with JSW to adopt best practices with the common interest of bringing the mill back to its best performance,” the source says. He adds that JSW should reconfirm employment for Piombino’s 1840 employees and 163 from the logistics department.
After losing Ilva to ArcelorMittal, homegrown steelmaker JSW Steel on Friday finalized the deal to acquire Italy's second-largest steel plant Aferpi from the Algerian Cevital for Rs 441 crore in a move that will give the company a foothold in the Italian and European market.
Originally owned by Russian steel company Severstal, the 2 MT steelmaker has 2,000 employees and specializes in making long products, especially steel used in rails and railways products. The acquisition will help the Sajjan Jindalled company to expand its reach in the specialised steel market, especially in automobiles.