PARIS (Reuters) -France and other European countries will push for measures to protect the European steel industry against Chinese imports, French government spokesperson Sophie Primas said on Thursday.
Primas was responding to an announcement by steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal that it will eliminate around 600 jobs across seven French sites due to the crisis in Europe’s steel industry.
“We have taken some first steps, notably on the question of quotas and the introduction of Chinese steel quotas, but we must go further and France is at the forefront,” Prima told broadcaster CNews/Europe1.
Steelmakers across Europe have been hit by high energy prices and competition from cheap Chinese imports. They also now face larger tariffs on exports to the United States.
Primas said Chinese overproduction of steel was partly to blame for the reduced competitiveness of Europe’s steel industry.
In a statement sent to its Works Council on Wednesday, ArcelorMittal France North said it had “implemented all possible short-term adaptation measures, but the company must now consider reorganisation measures to adapt its business to the new market context and to ensure its future competitiveness”.
Arcelor’s move follows a similar announcement by competitor Tata Steel, which earlier this month said it would scrap around 20% of the jobs at its large plant in the Netherlands.
ArcelorMittal’s job cuts have prompted criticism of the steelmaker, which has benefited from French government subsidies amid a push to reindustralise portions of the country.
“We have fought hard to ensure that the government and the European Union support the financing of the decarbonisation that is essential to ArcelorMittal,” said Xavier Bertrand, the president of Hauts de France, a region housing several of the sites affected by the job cuts.
“It is time for the group to tell us when these investments will be made,” he said in a post on X.
(Reporting by Makini BriceEditing by Bart Meijer and Gareth Jones)
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