Local politicians and the CGT expressed concern on Friday about ArcelorMittal’s lack of commitments on the future of its Dunkirk plant (north), despite Brussels’ steel plan to strengthen the competitiveness of the European steel industry.
“The more Europe and public powers advance, the more Arcelor regresses. At a certain point, enough is enough: we must respect people and, above all, employees,” criticized the president of LR’s Hauts-de-France regional council, Xavier Bertrand, during a trip to ArcelorMittal’s headquarters in Dunkirk, where a major decarbonization project remains suspended.
The European Commission revealed on Tuesday unprecedented measures to protect the Old Continent’s steel industry, crushed by huge Chinese overcapacity.
The plan involves roughly halving the quotas of foreign steel that can be imported into the EU without customs duties, while doubling tariffs on imports that exceed these quotas, taxing them at 50% compared to 25% previously.
ArcelorMittal has suspended a major investment project
“We must now transform this dynamic into investments,” said European Commission Vice President Stéphane Séjourné on Friday in Dunkirk. “It is my responsibility to remind manufacturers that the demand for results is shared (…). We have done part of our work, it is your turn to do yours as well,” he insisted.
ArcelorMittal welcomed the European plan on Tuesday. But the group continues to demand other strong measures from Brussels, in particular a reform of the carbon border adjustment mechanism (MACF), aimed at avoiding distortions of competition for European steel, subject to stricter environmental standards than elsewhere.
“We are waiting today for the European Commission to confirm the conditions of the MACF” before “confirming our project on Dunkirk”, reacted on Friday the president of ArcelorMittal France, Alain Legrix de la Salle. “We will decide once we have a complete view of the issue.”
“ArcelorMittal takes everyone by boat. They have looted our knowledge and sabotaged our work tools. Their objective is to leave Europe,” Gaëtan Lecocq, CGT representative on the ground, denounced to AFP.
For almost a year, ArcelorMittal has suspended a major investment project – worth 1.8 billion euros, of which more than 800 million in aid promised by the State – for the decarbonization of its Dunkirk blast furnaces, claiming that the steel produced in Europe is not competitive.
The steel company stated in May its intention to maintain this project, as long as Brussels applies its measures to protect European steel.
ArcelorMittal also plans to cut more than 600 jobs in France, about half of which are in Dunkirk. The group ruled out returning to this PSA, highlighting that it is an issue separate from decarbonization.
Source: BFM TV
