The world's second largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal will restart one of the two blast furnaces at its Fos-sur-Mer site (Bouches-du-Rhône), shut down at the end of 2022 due to the drop in demand for steel and the impact of energy prices, announced Wednesday the director of the site.
Read alsoEnergy: ArcelorMittal will temporarily shut down one of its Fos-sur-Mer blast furnaces
"
Our customers had been very impacted
" by the crisis, but "
we are starting to see a little more clearly, we will be able to restart our second blast furnace,
" declared Bruno Ribo, director of ArcelorMittal Méditerranée, on the occasion of a press visit.
This restart is scheduled for "
early April
", he said.
The steel group announced in early November the temporary shutdown of one of the two blast furnaces at the Fos site, its second largest site in France, which employs some 2,500 employees as well as 1,500 people hired by subcontractors. - contractors, for a production capacity of four million tonnes of steel per year.
Read alsoArcelorMittal: 2022 net profit down 38% to $9.3 billion
This closure was accompanied by "
partial activity measures (...) from the beginning of December 2022 to adapt the working time of part of the staff, up to one day per week maximum", had then
indicated the group, while insisting on its intention to restart the blast furnace "
as soon as market conditions allow it
".
