Acciaierie d’Italia (ADI) began shutting down the blast furnaces at the former Ilva works in Taranto on Tuesday, ANSA reported, after Italy’s Court of Cassation rejected the last appeals against the court-ordered stop of the hot end. For EU buyers this ends any hope of new slab or hot-rolled coil from Taranto’s furnaces in the near term, and adds to tight domestic supply in Italy just as mills test higher prices. If you buy Italian flat steel, check now which mills and which price index your first-quarter 2027 volumes rely on.
What happened
In judgment No. 28087 of 29 October, published on the court’s website on 30 October, the Joint Civil Sections of the Court of Cassation rejected or ruled inadmissible all the grounds of appeal of the plant’s operators; ANSA and the legal site Diritto.it report that the appeals of both Ilva and ADI were dismissed. That makes final the Milan Court of Appeal’s decree of 27 July, which ordered the hot end to stop on health grounds: asbestos in the blast furnace stoves and fine-dust emissions. A restart is possible only once all the asbestos has been removed and dust is brought within safe limits.
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Advertise with LoharoThe furnaces had been kept warm, without producing, under a government decree that allowed this until the ruling was filed and no later than 15 December. With the filing, ANSA reported that the administrators now decide the technical steps and timing of the shutdown, and that, as has long been argued, blast furnaces that are switched off cannot simply be relit. ADI had already stopped hot-end production on 9 October, as we reported.
ANSA also reported that binding bids for the plant are due on 8 November. Jindal, CE Industries and Flacks have shown interest; media reports say a Federacciai-led Italian consortium will not bid for the cold-rolling area, which Federacciai’s president said had not yet been decided.
What it means for buyers
Analysis The direct volume loss is small for the EU as a whole: EUROMETAL puts ADI’s recent output at about 1 million tonnes a year, with little spot presence. The effect is felt in Italy, where import quotas and CBAM already limit alternatives. EUROMETAL reports that Italian buyers are sourcing slabs from China, India and Türkiye to roll on ADI’s mills, because semi-finished steel is outside the quotas.
Two price assessments compared
| McCloskey by OPIS, via EUROMETAL | SMM | |
|---|---|---|
| Italy, domestic HRC ex-works | €740/t (range €730–750/t) | €750–770/t workable |
| Assessment date | 30 October | Week of 3 November |
| Northwest Europe, domestic HRC ex-works | €760/t | Not given |
| South Europe ports, imported HRC DDP | €730–750/t cleared stock; up to €800/t new material | Not given |
| Taranto’s role | Shutdown limits domestic availability, with technical issues at some mills | Italian output expected to fall further after the blast furnace shutdown |
Analysis The two assessments do not show a clear post-ruling jump. SMM’s €750–770/t is €10–30/t above McCloskey’s €730–750/t range, but the dates and methods differ, so the gap is not a measured price rise. On McCloskey’s figures, Italian coil sat €20/t below Northwest Europe (€740 − €760), and new imported coil at South European ports was up to €60/t above Italian ex-works (€800 − €740), before the buyer’s own freight from mill or port.
Analysis For your contract: if a 2027 coil contract is indexed to an Italian ex-works assessment, check which publisher and date it uses, because the two above differ by up to €30/t. If Taranto rolled coil from imported slab is offered, ask where the slab was melted and poured: it enters at slab terms, and the origin matters for CBAM and the melt-and-pour declaration.
What to watch
- 8 November: the binding-bid deadline and who bids for which parts of the plant.
- The administrators’ shutdown timetable and any word on asbestos removal, the only route back to production.
- Italian HRC assessments into first-quarter 2027 restocking.
Verification status: Verified
- The ruling and its grounds come from the Court of Cassation’s own summary of judgment No. 28087, matched by ANSA and Diritto.it; the start of the shutdown and the bid details are attributed to ANSA, citing the company’s statement to unions. Prices are attributed to McCloskey by OPIS via EUROMETAL and to SMM. The comparison, arithmetic and contract checks are Loharo analysis.
- Key: Verified = material factual claims are supported by an appropriate primary source or clearly attributed reporting/market assessments; Partially verified = a specific material claim remains unsupported, contradicted or materially overstated; Analysis = interpretation or forecast with sourced premises; Developing = material facts are checked but the situation is still changing.
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Primary sources
- Sentenza n. 28087 del 29/10/2026, Sezioni Unite civili (in Italian) — Corte Suprema di Cassazione, 29 October 2026
Supporting sources
- Shutdown of furnaces at ex-ILVA steelworks begins — ANSA, 3 November 2026
- L’ex Ilva si ferma, la Cassazione rigetta tutti i ricorsi contro lo stop area a caldo (in Italian) — ANSA, 29 October 2026
- Ex Ilva, verso spegnimento degli altiforni e stop dell’area a caldo (in Italian) — ANSA, 29 October 2026
- Ex Ilva, la Cassazione conferma lo stop all’area a caldo (in Italian) — Diritto.it, 2026
- European coil and green steel round-up: EU coil market bullish for Q1 restocking — EUROMETAL, 2 November 2026
- European HRC: mills probe higher target prices, supply tightness battles downstream slump — SMM, 3 November 2026
Last fact-check: 3 November 2026.
