Steel Mills
Nucor and Duferco Part Ways as Joint Venture Ends
Written by Sandy Williams
December 21, 2020
The Nucor and Duferco joint venture has officially ended. The financial closing papers were signed on Dec. 21 marking the end of a 12-year partnership between the Italian firm and Nucor.
Said Antonio Gozzi, Duferco Italia Holding president, “These have been 12 remarkable years of productive collaboration with the first U.S. steel producer, years in which our company has grown from a technical, financial and economical point of view thanks to the contribution of our American partner. Our only regret is that in this period we were unable to achieve the results that Nucor legitimately expected from the JV.
“Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic and the consequent cut in Nucor’s overall investment budget didn’t match with our willingness to proceed with the already deliberated and approved investment in the new San Zeno rolling mill. This caused one of those situations of strategic divergences that sometimes happen, even among the most collaborative partners.”
Gozzi said the partnership helped the company understand and appreciate the American industrial culture that is embodied by Nucor. “American capitalism is often only identified with its financial expression and excesses of Wall Street,” said Gozzi. “This is a partial and superficial vision of what American capitalism truly is, one that does not give the right credit to the importance of its industrial values, technology, know-how and competences, organization, size, management approach and a taste for challenges and expansion that American companies exported worldwide.
“Loyalty, transparency, pragmatism, focus on results, respect for our people, team spirit, very strong corporate culture is what our American friends from Nucor have taught us over the years, and I believe this lesson will stick in the Duferco of the future.”
Among the many at Nucor that received thanks for their collaboration, Gozzi said “four men in particular embodied the genuine spirt of friendship and cooperation that was this partnership for us: Dan DiMIcco, John Ferriola, R. Joseph Stratman and Leon Topalian.
“Grow the core, expand beyond, live our culture has been your lesson to us,” said Gozzi. “We won’t forget it.”
Sandy Williams
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