Summary Prosecutors last week ordered the seizure of 8.1 billion euros in assets from the Rivas.
ROME (AFP) - Italian Economic Development Minister Flavio Zanonato warned on Sunday that the country s steel sector was at risk as a legal row deepened over pollution at a plant in the south.
"If a company like this shuts down, we can say goodbye to the entire steel industry," Zanonato said in an interview with news channel Sky TG 24.
Prosecutors last week ordered the seizure of 8.1 billion euros ($10.5 billion) in assets from the Rivas, a family of steel magnates that owns the Ilva factory in Taranto at the heart of the row.
The Ilva board of directors announced they were resigning on Saturday in protest against the move, ahead of government-hosted talks in Rome on Monday and Tuesday on the future of the plant.
The resignations take effect on June 6.
Local prosecutors are investigating the Rivas for alleged tax fraud and causing an "environmental disaster" by failing to comply with laws to limit toxic pollution that is believed to have led to the deaths of dozens of local residents.
"The factory needs to be transformed. It s not as if by shutting it down we resolve the environmental problems," Zanonato said.
"Steel is absolutely necessary for our economy," he added.
Susanna Camusso, leader of Italy s biggest CGIL trade union, said the resignation of Ilva s directors was "worrying" and called for "continuity in production" at the plant.
The assets seized by prosecutors are a sum estimated to be the equivalent of what the Rivas would have had to invest in the plant to comply with legislation.
The Rivas employ around 24,000 people directly and a total of 40,000 steel sector jobs could be affected, including contractors and suppliers.
Italy has western Europe s biggest steel sector and the Riva Group accounts for around 80 percent of production in the country.
