Italy: Cementir to close down hot area at Taranto plant

1909 Cementir, the Italian cement and construction materials group, has told the unions that it is to close down the hot production area in its Taranto plant by the end of December 2013.

This is largely due to the drop in demand from the construction sector as well as a decrement in supply of slag to Ilva, the local steelmaker whose activity remains also uncertain.

Cementir's activity reduction will impact its 98 staff at the plant as 56 of them will not be needed any longer. The facility's nominal production, which stands at around 1.5 million tonnes/year, reaches around 500,000tonnes currently.