The head of procurement of the ex-Ilva has a metal trading company

Acciaierie d’Italia’s head of procurement is the owner and sole director of a metals trading company

The question is simple, but with an obviously complex answer: is it right that a company owned by Invitalia (and therefore by the State) has a potential conflict of interest in a top position? Briefly the story. In October 2021 he was appointed as Rental and Raw Material Purchasing Director – that is what is called in jargon procurement – Nicola Pozza, Italian manager residing in Switzerland. What’s strange?

Nothing. Pool has a long experience in the sector. From his profile LinkedInindeed, we read that for over 10 years he was a Senior trader in Bulk Trading SA, where he was involved in the sale of coal. The problem, however, arises when it is discovered that among the various activities of Pool (holds several companies in Switzerland) there is also that of being the owner and sole director, from 2020, of Nima AG. It is an anonymous company registered since 4 December 2013 in the Commercial Register Office of Canton Ticino.

What does Nima do? Here it gets more interesting: in the search that Affaritaliani.it was able to acquire it states that the purpose of the company is “the trade of steel products and any other steel product as well as raw materials and in particular those relating to the steel cycle such as coal, anthracite, coke, iron ore, scrap, direct reduced iron (DRI), ferroalloys, iron ore, iron sand, mill scale, machinery and plants for the steel industry “. That is all products necessary to operate the blast furnaces, including those of Steelworks of Italy.

And here we return to the initial question: was it really necessary to turn to a person who was certainly competent, but who has a company that deals with trading in steel products? For real Nicola Pozza was the only acceptable and attractive candidate? Because in twelve months no one has hesitated to ask the manager to, at least, leave the position of sole director of Nima AG to avoid possible conflicts of interest?

Finally, we recall that Acciaierie d’Italia, that is the new name of Ilva, has the share capital subscribed to at 62% from ArcelorMittal and 38% from the National Agency for the attraction of investments and business development SpA – Invitalia and can count on eight production sites in Italy, with the main one located in Taranto. Affaritaliani.it tried to contact Pool and with Steelworks of Italy for a comment on the matter but, at the moment, has not received any response.

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