According to the Environment Ministry, Italy's ILVA steel plant must limit annual production and shut down Europe's biggest blast furnace for upgrades in order to get an environmental license to operate.

According to a document outlining the work that had to be done to keep the plant running, the factory in the southern city of Taranto must limit its annual steel production to 8 million tonnes as compared with output of 8.5 million tonnes in 2011.

The plant began a shutdown last week after a court ordered it to close because of evidence that pollution was causing above average cancer rates in the surrounding area.

The court's plan sparked a series of protests by labor unions, which said a pause in production would put the future of the factory in doubt and risk jobs in a region already suffering above average unemployment, creating a headache for the government of Prime Minister Mr Mario Monti.

ILVA employs 12,000 workers directly while another 8,000 people are indirectly employed by the sprawling site located in the heel of Italy's boot. It accounts for more than a third of Italy's total steel output, the second biggest producer in Europe after Germany.

The ministry said it must also shut down and upgrade several of its coke oven batteries and blast furnaces, including one which is Europe's biggest, with the aim of reducing the mill's toxic dust emissions.

The huge, continuously operating blast furnaces cannot be switched off without a long term shutdown of the site, stoking some fears that it could be closed down permanently.

It is not yet clear whether the ministry's requirements will trump the upgrades ordered by the court, which has taken over management of a large part of the factory to oversee its clean up.

Source - Reuters

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