Reuters reported that Riva Group will cut output at its major Italian unit to 30% or 3 million tonnes due to weak demand from key industrial consumers.

Mr Emilio Riva chairman and founder of Riva Group said that the Ilva plant in Taranto will stop the fourth blast furnace out of five from May 10th 2009. That will cut the plant's annual output to 3 million tonnes from 10 million tonnes and one furnace has not been working for ages and the other two have been stopped for a few months.

Mr Riva said that his group's consolidated revenues came in at about EUR 10 billion in 2008, in line with 2007, with about one third of sales coming from overseas operations.

Riva Group said that it is Europe's third biggest iron and steel maker with 38 production and processing plants, including 18 plants outside Italy. It produced nearly 18 million tonnes of raw steel in 2007.

(Sourced from Reuters)