Last May, Snam granted Corinth Pipeworks a series of contracts for the provision of more than 180 kilometers of pipelines for the Adriatic Line. This gas pipeline will increase transport capacity between southern and northern Italy by 10 billion cubic meters per year in eastern Italy. Most likely, if output at the former Ilva steelworks in Taranto had not been cut to a minimum (roughly 2 million tons), the steel for these extremely long pipelines would have been manufactured in Italy. The decision to save and regenerate the Taranto plant through decarbonization was made for a variety of reasons. Among them is the industrial aspect: the plant is currently the only one in the country, and one of the few in Europe, that produces a highly versatile primary steel (i.e., produced directly from the raw material, iron, rather than scrap, resulting in fewer impurities) capable of meeting the needs of the world's leading manufacturers. A level of quality that few can match. As a result, the future of the former Ilva steelworks and its output is a matter of economic sovereignty for Made in Italy, which is equally important as the supply of energy. While gas and electricity fuel our machinery, without steel, it will be more difficult to manufacture automobiles, appliances, pipelines, defense equipment, bridge arches, ship hull components, or parts of airplane fuselages. From the Taranto steelworks — today using traditional blast furnaces, though in crisis, and in the future with electric furnaces powered by direct reduced iron — comes, and will continue to be produced, what is known as ‘flat-rolled steel’, which, as CDP notes in a recent report, is “essential for the production of key components in sectors such as mechanical engineering, transportation, and home appliances". This is due to the fact that it is a "sheet" of steel that has a highly moldable capacity, allowing manufacturing industries to shape their products in accordance with market demands. Italy's steel production will reach approximately 20 million tons in 2024. During the same period, nearly 18 million tons were imported.