Milan court forces shutdown of Taranto steelworks' hot area

On 11 September 2026 the Milan Court of Appeal (civil division) rejected the request by Acciaierie d'Italia and the ex-Ilva in extraordinary administration to suspend its order of 27 July 2026; the shutdown of the hot area (area a caldo: blast furnaces, coke ovens, steel shop) of the Taranto steelworks must therefore be implemented by 28 October 2026 (ANSA; second source Adnkronos: https://www.adnkronos.com/cronaca/ex-ilvia-richiesta-corte-appello-milano_n2YkdnowV40f9kZ6iR4Da). The court held that the right to health prevails over economic interests. The sources do not quantify the hot area's directly affected employees (null); the roughly 2,500 employees of the 28 supplier firms are already recorded as entry 05bc5af3 (layoffs) and are not double-counted here. The unions Fim, Fiom and Uilm are demanding the government's extraordinary social and relaunch plan for the ex-Ilva. Update (10 Oct 2026): on 8 October 2026 Acciaierie d'Italia suspended all production in the Taranto hot area from 9 October and applied for short-time work (cassa integrazione); the Genoa and Novi Ligure plants, which take their feedstock from Taranto, are to halt temporarily by 15 November 2026. The Court of Cassation hearing remains set for 20 October 2026; the unions called a 24-hour strike (Il Post, 8 Oct 2026). Update (17.10.2026): According to union sources, Acciaierie d'Italia is asking to extend short-time working from the current 4,450 to up to 8,622 of its 9,626 employees until 28.02.2027 (single-source report; up to 6,964 of 7,875 in Taranto, 870 of 917 in Genoa, 515 of 542 in Novi Ligure) (La Repubblica, 17.10.2026).