No end to Lakshmi Mittal-France faceoff
LONDON: Arcelor Mittal CEO LN Mittal's row with the French government over the closure of two blast furnaces in France has all the hallmarks of blowing up into a classic Ango-Indian-French controversy, what with London's intrepid mayor Boris Johnson jumping into the fray.
Mittal's current problems in France are eerily reminiscent of the bitter opposition the India-born businessman faced from Arcelor's executives and French interests with his contested takeover of the company in 2006.
Since then, LN Mittal has grown to be the richest man in the UK, and an undisputed titanBSE 1.51 % on the steel horizon. The last year, however, has not been good for the European steel industry, and Arcelor Mittal's share price has fallen 20%. Steel demand in Europe has dropped by almost a quarter since the 2008 downturn, and experts say endemic overcapacity in Europe is about 20%. Just last week, Tata SteelBSE 1.22 %, which showed a shock loss because of European operations, said it would have to cut about 900 jobs in the UK to deal with the downturn.
Boris Johsnon, London's irrepressible mayor, made headlines across Europe with his statement that revolutionaries are taking over France, and spouted for investors to come to London instead - a statement that has apparently enraged the French, never on the same page as the English.
The future of the Florange plants, which employs about 600 people, will likely have major ramifications both in France and Europe. First, France's feisty industry minister Arnaud Montebourg accused Arcelor Mittal of "blackmail and lying," a statement that sources close to the Mittal family said were "deeply shocking, mainly because of the personal accusations".
Minutes before a high level one-on-one meeting with French president Francois Hollande, the president threatened to nationalise not just the blast furnaces at Florange, but the whole complex. France recently doled out 7 billion to nationalise and keep alive the operations of Peugot-Citroen, a move that needs EU clearance and wasn't appreciated in the rest of Europe.
After the bilateral meeting, which reports say were "businesslike" both sides seem to be sticking to their guns. Arcleor Mittal, which has its major operations in France and employs 20,000 people in the country over 50 different locations has said that the fate of Florange would affect the rest of its industrial operations in France, but French operations are also the biggest chunk of Arcelor Mittal's global portfolio.
Hollande reportedly asked for guarantees for the 600 odd jobs, or else for the whole complex. Arcelor Mittal is in no mood to sell its high-end cold steel business, which supplies high tech steel to the automotive industry and employs 2,000 people.
Arcelor has agreed to try and find buyers for the blast furnace by December 1, the deadline to close the furnaces. Blast furnaces can be left idling - but that costs money - but once closed cannot be re-opened in a hurry. As of now, the official stance on both sides seem to be that Hollande is insisting on either a jobs guarantee, or a keeping all options and discussions, including nationalisation open. Arcelor Mittal believes it needs to shut these useless units, later if not sooner.
INterested Buyer
France said late on Wednesday that it had an investor willing to invest 400 million ($515 million) in the steel plant at the centre of a bitter row between the government and its owner ArcelorMittal, agencies report.
ArcelorMittal, which wants to continue to operate the rest of the site, has given the government until Saturday to find a new investor willing to take over the furnaces.
"We have a buyer, who is a steelman, an industrialist, who is not a financier, who wants to invest his own money and who is ready to put almost 400 million into renovating this plant," Arnaud Montebourg, the minister for industrial renewal told deputies.
No end to Lakshmi Mittal-France faceoff - The Economic Times