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Print[Ferro-alloys.com]ArcelorMittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi N. Mittal met the Romanian president and prime minister on a one-day visit to the country last week. Discussions centred on the Romanian steel industry and the challenges facing it – including high energy prices.
“ArcelorMittal Romania is very important to us as a group,” said Mr Mittal to president Traian Basescu, who greeted him at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace together with prime minister Victor Ponta.
However Mr Mittal, who was joined by business division east CEO Sanjay Samaddar and other members of ArcelorMittal Romania management, raised his concerns about the sustainability of ArcelorMittal’s business in the country. He said measures must be taken to address the high and increasing energy prices that are hurting the competitiveness of the steel industry in Romania – and in the European Union (EU) as a whole.
Earlier this year, ArcelorMittal Romania’s management spoke out against the incentives being offered to the renewable energy industry, and the related rise in energy bills for heavy-duty energy consumers such as steel companies:
“We are extremely worried by the explosive increase of energy costs through the measures of awarding incentives for renewable energy and the liberalisation of the pricing of local content of gas market. For us, these evolutions require an urgent re-equilibration in order not to lose the sustainability of the industrial activities in Romania”.
Energy costs for ArcelorMittal Galati, which employs 7,000 people, have risen by EUR25m (US$ 7.4m) in the past four years.
Mr Mittal’s comments came on the same day that Robrecht Himpe, ArcelorMittal management committee member and CEO of Flat Carbon Europe segment, issued a statement at the EUROFER European Steel Day which took place in Brussels, Belgium:
“EU industrial policy should reduce operational costs such as the high costs of energy. It is important that Europe focuses on promoting growth and infrastructure investment and not only on austerity measures” said Mr Himpe.
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