First of ILVA's blast furnaces to close by November 1

The first of the blast furnaces at the highly-controversial ILVA steelworks in the southern Italian city of Taranto will be turned off by November 1, the director of the plant, Adolfo Buffo, said in a plan presented late Monday evening. The company announced that 942 redundancies are planned at the plant that is at the center of a heated industrial dispute, but the workers will be relocated to another factory. Prosecutors in Taranto on Monday ordered its ILVA steel plant to close its five most-polluting units within five days. Managers at ILVA are trying to keep the plant open despite previous orders to close departments. The high-profile case has pitted environmental concerns due to high cancer rates against a local need for jobs.