Italy's top court set to rule on future of troubled Taranto steelworks

ROME, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Italy's Supreme Court is due to consider on Tuesday a case that could have major consequences for the former Ilva steelworks, a leading employer in the southern Italian city of Taranto and an important  part of Italy's manufacturing sector, with a ruling expected in the coming days.

The country's top court is reviewing an order to shut the steelworks' blast furnaces on health and environmental grounds - a move the company says could trigger the permanent closure of the plant, which was once the largest in Europe.

The ruling comes at a delicate moment for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government, which is trying to keep the country's largest steelmaker alive while dealing with mounting social tensions in southern Italy ahead of a national election due next year.

The site is Italy's only integrated steelworks, producing the metal from iron ore and coal through a blast-furnace process. It employs around 8,000 workers directly and supports a large network of contractors in a city of fewer than 200,000 people. 

The government has extended a bidding deadline for Acciaierie d'Italia, formerly Ilva, to allow potential investors time to assess the impact of the court ruling.

The leading bidder is India's Jindal Steel International, while a consortium of Italian steelmakers coordinated by Federacciai has expressed interest mainly in selected downstream assets.

Workers demanding a viable industrial future for the plant staged a five-day strike last week, blocking access to an Eni refinery and disrupting fuel supplies to motorists and airports.

Meloni has said her government would do "whatever it can" to safeguard production at the plant, adding that her administration had committed about €5 billion ($5.6 billion) to the facility since taking office in 2022.    

($1 = 0.8912 euros)

(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni; Editing by Crispian Balmer, Kirsten Donovan)