Updated status of the blast furnaces in Taranto: AFO/2 will not restart anytime soon

Technical conditions and new restart timeline for AFO/2

On June 26, the Government-appointed Commissioners of Acciaierie d’Italia under Extraordinary Administration announced a significant update to the Recovery Plan. Specifically, Blast Furnace 2 (AFO/2) will not restart as initially planned due to severe plant damage discovered after a complex and delicate preliminary operation.

When the Extraordinary Administration took over, the blast furnace was already offline but still loaded with pig iron, and it could not be emptied due to the high internal temperature. The removal operations, which only began in December 2024 and were completed in March 2025, were carried out with the utmost caution for safety reasons. Only after the completion of these activities was it possible to assess the extent of the damage to the facilities. To protect both the structures and the personnel, the decision was made not to restart the furnace but to urgently procure the materials needed for its restoration, in line with technical lead times.

“This was,” the statement reads, “a completely unexpected and unforeseen event, the cause of which certainly predates the beginning of the Extraordinary Administration in February 2024.”

 

The original plan had called for AFO/2 to restart this year. However, recent estimates suggest that operations will be delayed until early 2026. Until then, only Blast Furnace 4 will remain in operation.

Additionally, in May 2025, Blast Furnace 1 (AFO/1) was shut down indefinitely following a major fire and remains under judicial seizure; no timeline for its reactivation is currently available.

The current priority, the Government-appointed Commissioners say, is to ensure “safety, regulatory compliance, and full protection of workers.”

Image above: Sunset over the Taranto steel plant, 2010. Photo: DimiTalen / CC0