The steelmaker ArcelorMittal has decided to delay its massive carbon-free steel project on its Dunkirk site (North), the Minister Delegate for Industry said on Saturday, with the CGT for its part evoking a “black scenario”.
“The European steel industry is currently in crisis, with a level of demand and prices for steel reaching a historic low. This context explains ArcelorMittal's decision to postpone its investment in the decarbonization of the Dunkirk site, which is currently not operating not at full capacity,” said Marc Ferracci, in a statement sent to AFP.
According to the newspaper l'Usine Nouvelle which revealed the information on Saturday, “the group is now requesting measures to protect European steel from the European Commission before committing to any investment of this type in Europe.”
Contacted by AFP, ArcelorMittal did not immediately react.
Emblematic of this industry's efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, the ArcelorMittal project in Dunkirk was costed at 1.8 billion euros, including state aid of up to 850 million euros.
This involves building two electric furnaces and a direct iron reduction unit, the first step in producing carbon-free steel.
The Minister Delegate assured that “the French State is working, particularly with other European countries, to re-establish fair rules in the face of international competition”.
Gaëtan Lecocq, general secretary of the CGT at Arcelor Dunkerque and elected to the Dunkirk CSE, spoke of “a dark scenario”, without being able to confirm the management's possible plans.
“With the commitments linked to COP21, we must reduce our CO2 emissions by a third by 2030. If we do not keep these commitments, in the best case scenario, Arcelor will eliminate the entire cast iron sector, which represents half of the factory (…). The most pessimistic scenario, which we fear, is the closure of the factory”, declared the trade unionist to AFP.
Arcelor Dunkerque is “the largest blast furnace in Europe, 3,200 direct permanent contracts, between 8,000 and 9,000 counting indirect jobs. One in five Dunkirk families works directly or indirectly for ArcelorMittal,” he insisted.
“For the moment, we are putting pressure on politicians to act, we are not going to let ourselves die like that (…) we are the first metallurgy union in France, we know how to fight. that the announcements will come, we will be ready,” he promised.
