BBC News reported that Mr Arnaud Montebourg French minister for industrial recovery, accusing the steelmaker of lying and disrespecting the country, has said that ArcelorMittal is no longer welcome in France.
Mr Montebourg told French business daily Les Echos that "We no longer want ArcelorMittal in France because they didn't respect France."
Mr Montebourg said that "The problem isn't the furnaces in Florange, It is Mittal."
The minister, who previously opposed the closure of a Peugeot factory, accused ArcelorMittal of overwhelming lies and said the Florange closure breaks a promise made by CEO Mr LN Mittal during Mittal Steel's EUR 26.9 billion takeover of Arcelor in 2006, which was strongly opposed by French ministers.
ArcelorMittal angered workers and the government when it announced a plan in October to close two furnaces at its steel plant in Florange. On October 1, ArcelorMittal said it would shut the furnaces for good and gave the French government two months to find a buyer. ArcelorMittal wants Paris to find a new owner for the blast furnaces but does not want to sell the remainder of the site.
ArcelorMittal blamed the European crisis and continued lack of demand in Europe for its decision to downsize, saying it had already tried to put work on hold at the Florange plant in an attempt to keep it open long term.
The company wrote on October 1
To date the company had implemented a strategy of temporary idling the Florange furnaces whilst waiting to see if the economic situation would improve. However after four years of challenging conditions, it is clear that there will be no swift return to pre-crisis levels. Today European demand is still approximately 25% below 2007 levels…
The Florange liquid phase and the slab it produces is not competitive in today's difficult economic context. This is due to a combination of factors, including crucially its location 400 kilometres from the nearest harbour as well as the small production output that negatively impacts fixed costs.
