French minister says Mittal "not welcome" in France

[idune]

French minister says Mittal "not welcome" in France

By Nicholas Vinocur and Yann Le Guernigou

PARIS | Mon Nov 26, 2012 8:21am EST

(Reuters) - Steelmaker Mittal, which acquired France's Arcelor in 2006, is no longer welcome in France due to years of broken promises, Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg said on Monday, intensifying the row over plans to close two furnaces in northeastern France.

Montebourg's attack on ArcelorMittal (ISPA.AS) risks exacerbating tensions in a dispute that is central to Socialist President Francois Hollande's efforts to save jobs and reverse years of industrial decline.

It came after Montebourg, one of the most left-wing ministers in the government, said last week that France could nationalize the company's Florange site on a temporary basis while the government tries to find a buyer.

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, has said it will shut down two blast furnaces at Florange from December 1 unless the government can find a buyer to operate them.

"We no longer want Mittal in France because they haven't respected France," Montebourg said in an interview with Les Echos business daily published on Monday.

He said Chief Executive Lakshmi Mittal had told "shameful lies" since 2006 about the group's plans and had not kept his promises to the French government.

"The problem with the blast furnaces at Florange is not the blast furnaces at Florange, it's Mittal," he said.

A source close to Lakshmi Mittal, who according to French media is due to meet with Hollande on Tuesday, told Reuters that management were "very shocked" at Montebourg's words.

"These are quite violent declarations against a company which employs 20,000 people in France," the source said.

Montebourg did not elaborate on his comment. It was unclear whether he meant that the government would consider taking over the more than 100 ArcelorMittal sites in France - or simply wanted to raise pressure on the company as the deadline looms.

The fate of Florange, situated in the former heart of French steelmaking country, became a symbol of France's flagging industry during campaigning for the May election and is now a test of Hollande's promise to reverse the decline.

Failure to save jobs at Florange would add to a list of industrial shutdowns, including a Peugeot PSA (PEUP.PA) production site near Paris, and risks deepening fears in the public that the government is powerless to save jobs.

Unemployment is at a 13-year high of over 10 percent and October jobless claims due on Tuesday are expected to show another increase.

A spokeswoman for Montebourg was not immediately available to comment. ArcelorMittal, which employs some 20,000 people across France, declined to comment.

Last week Montebourg said the government had received two offers from buyers interested in acquiring more than just the two blast furnaces, but gave no further details.

ArcelorMittal has denied having received any such offers.

French minister says Mittal not welcome in France | Reuters

 

[IndoUS]

No offense but what I hear from news it seems France has some of the highest tax rates which are bad for businesses.

 

[veekysingh]

this news worth posting in world affairs ? sounds like normal business to me. where are the mods?

 

[phylumchordata]

anti-india stuff + PDF ka tadka= INDIA IS DOOMED

 

[indian_jigar]

Who gives a $hit. Man you Bangladeshis need a life. Why dont you post something about your own country than looking for India-related news day and night.

 

[idune]

French minister threatens to expel Arcelor Mittal

Arcelor Mittal is no longer welcome in France, its minister for industrial recovery, has said, accusing the steelmaker of "lying" and "disrespecting" the country.

The multinational angered workers and the government when it announced a plan in October to close two furnaces at its steel plant in Florange.

It gave the government a grace period of 60 days to look for a new owner.

The Mittal family said they were "extremely shocked" by the comments.

"We no longer want Arcelor Mittal in France because they didn't respect France," Arnaud Montebourg told French business daily Les Echos.

'Mittal's fault'

The minister, who previously opposed the closure of a Peugeot factory, accused the company of "overwhelming lies" and said the Florange closure breaks a promise made by chief executive Lakshmi Mittal during Mittal Steel's 26.9bn-euro (£21.8bn) takeover of Arcelor in 2006, which was strongly opposed by French ministers.

The problem "isn't the furnaces in Florange, it's Mittal", said Mr Montebourg.

Mr Mittal, the Indian-born chief executive, is expected to meet with President Francois Hollande on Tuesday to discuss the group's operations in France.

The talks come ahead of a deadline on Saturday which Mr Mittal gave the state to find a buyer for the two idled blast furnaces in Florange, a traditional steel town in north-eastern France.

The government says it has received two offers, but only for the entire site. Mr Mittal has refused to sell the full operation, which employs a total of 20,000 workers.

Nationalisation?

As a result, Mr Montebourg has said he is exploring how to seize the entire Florange site should Mr Mittal refuse his demands.

According to the French newspaper, Mr Montebourg's idea "would be a partnership with a minor manufacturer, the time to stabilise activity" in Florange.

Jean-Louis Borloo, a conservative politician and a former environment minister, also supported Mr Montebourg's efforts.

"France's steel industry needs to live - there are 2,200 people on the site, 22,000 Arcelor Mittal employees in France and globally, there are 75,000 [employees involved in steel]," he told France Inter radio.

"And the idea that the government, along with its sovereign wealth fund and partners like Eramet and Ascometal (mining and metallurgical groups), reflect upon a temporary state control... does not seem inappropriate."

The Mittal family said they were "extremely shocked" by Mr Montebourg's attacks on the steelmaker.

One person close to the group said: "These are pretty violent comments towards a group that employs 20,000 people in France."

BBC News - French minister threatens to expel Arcelor Mittal

 

[Skull and Bones]

Regular business, move on..

Arcellor Mittal has options to move toward east European nations, where growth is still intact and they should be more than welcoming him. If i were in his place, i'd have done that.

 

[idune]

Regular business, move on..

Arcellor Mittal has options to move toward east European nations, where growth is still intact and they should be more than welcoming him. If i were in his place, i'd have done that.

Soon Mittal tries to move business away soon it will face regulations.

 

[phylumchordata]

Soon Mittal tries to move business away soon it will face regulations.

and India will not become a supapawa!!!

 

[idune]

and India will not become a supapawa!!!

it shows mittal will face limitation and it also exposes european duplicity.

 

[phylumchordata]

it shows mittal will face limitation and it also exposes european duplicity.

oh wow.. and that will cause WW3...and India will fall...KID KID KID no INDIAN or SOUTH ASIAN cares what happens to MITTAL and company...if you know how business works...this news is unimporatant and has nothing to GEOPOLITICS..btw Europeans are far better and more genuine than US SOUTH ASIANS...

 

[Ammyy]

Poor jamati and their India phobia

Start googling again to find any thing anti India cause this time you failed

 

[idune]

Mittal and Hollande in ‘blackmail’ talks

By James Boxell and Hugh Carnegy in Paris
France's Minister for Industrial Recovery Arnaud Montebourg speaks with workers of the ArcelorMittal©AP

Arnaud Montebourg, the French industy minister, meets ArcelorMittal workers

Emergency talks in Paris between Lakshmi Mittal and the president of France should be under way over an extraordinary industrial row in which the Indian steel magnate’s company was accused of “lying” and “blackmail” by a French minister.

The hastily convened meeting at the Elysée palace, scheduled to begin at 5.45pm local time, takes place a day after Arnaud Montebourg, the leftwing industry minister, launched a blistering attack on Mr Mittal’s company, ArcelorMittal, saying that he wanted the world’s biggest steel producer to quit France.


Ahead of the meeting, Mr Hollande told reporters that his discussion with Mr Mittal would include the possibility of temporarily nationalising the two blast furnaces under threat.

People close to Mr Mittal – the steelmaker’s chairman, chief executive and main shareholder – said he was “extremely shocked” by Mr Montebourg’s attack, prompted by the company’s plans to shut two blast furnaces.

French officials said they were unhappy with Mr Montebourg’s inflammatory language, but insisted the minister was correct in claiming Mr Mittal had failed to meet commitments over the furnaces made in 2006 and 2009. ArcelorMittal denies the claims.

The dispute will deepen fears among international companies about a powerful strain of anti-business sentiment running through François Hollande’s Socialist government. Mr Montebourg, a vocal critic of globalisation, launched similar public broadsides against the Peugeot family over the carmaker’s plans to close the Aulnay car plant near Paris.

The chief executive of one of France’s biggest industrial employers, who asked not to be named, told the Financial Times: “Maybe he’s being naive, but Montebourg is giving an image of France around the world which really isn’t good.”

In a French newspaper interview on Monday, Mr Montebourg said: “We do not want ArcelorMittal in France, because they do not respect France.”

He also accused Mittal Steel, which took over Luxembourg-based Arcelor in a €26.9bn deal in 2006, of “lying” and “never holding to its engagements” with the French state.

ArcelorMittal, which employs 20,000 people in France, wants to close the two furnaces at its Florange site in the industrial Lorraine region and make 629 workers redundant.

Speaking to Les Echos newspaper, the minister said: “The violence and the brutality of Mittal; they are going to have to pay.”

Mr Montebourg later tried to soften his comments, saying: “When I said, ‘We don’t want Mittal in France any more’, I wanted to say that we do not want its methods any more.” But he added that those methods included “blackmail and threats”.

The plight of the Florange workers played an important part in this year’s presidential election, which Mr Hollande won on a “pro-jobs” platform.

Mr Mittal has given the government until December 1 to find a buyer for the Florange blast furnaces before he shuts them for good. He intends to keep the rest of the site, which employs 2,000 workers.

Mr Montebourg wants the whole site put up for sale, arguing that he can find buyers only for the entire facility. Should Mr Mittal refuse, the minister is threatening to nationalise the entire Florange site.

The government argues that the Florange closure breaks promises made by Mr Mittal during his hostile takeover of Arcelor, which was strongly opposed by ministers. It also says Mr Mittal offered explicit guarantees about Florange’s future in 2009.

ArcelorMittal denies it made any binding commitments and says the closures are necessary because of plunging demand for European steel. Mr Mittal argues a sale of the entire Florange site would endanger the jobs of all of his 20,000 French employees because it is integral to the company’s operations in the country.

Mr Mittal’s lawyers believe a state seizure is unlikely under French law. Mr Hollande raised the prospect of a “factory act” during his election campaign this year, which would force companies to seek buyers before closing profitable plants. But lawyers say it would be difficult to enact under the French constitution and EU laws.

Hermann Reith, a European steel analyst at BHF Bank in Germany, said Mr Montebourg’s comments were “not helpful” and added that Mr Mittal had run his network of plants in a “reasonable” way while respecting broad undertakings to invest: “Politicians have to realise that headcount can only be sustained if the plants are competitive in the long run.”

Mittal and Hollande in ‘blackmail’ talks - FT.com

 

[KS]

The idiot socialists will take France along a regressive path.

 

[JohnyD]

Mittal should not be even welcomed in India...when it comes to business, for him it is just a business....he never favored his own country when we needed the FDI so desperately, wondering France expected the same from this man referring his so called commitments. Only companies with good ethical background like Tata and committed to Social benefits should be allowed to do business when it comes to large scale deal!!!

we lived without Mittal steel, guess Mittal now cant live without India....!