December 03, 2008

ArcelorMittal makes commitments to France

In addition to investments at Gandrange site in the Lorraine region of France, ArcelorMittal has also announced more commitments I n France

1. Florange
ArcelorMittal announces that, provided the right economic and regulatory conditions prevail, including the issue of relevant emissions quotas, it intends to maintain blast furnace operations at its Florange facility beyond 2012. As part of the previous “Apollo” plan launched by Arcelor in 2003 the hot steel-making facilities at Florange were due to be closed in 2010/11 affecting over 1000 employees. Following the merger to form ArcelorMittal, the decision was taken to maintain the hot-phase until 2012.

ArcelorMittal also announces today that it intends to carry out a feasibility study at its Florange site to ascertain its suitability of the site for implementing a CO 2 carbon capture and storage prototype project. As the lead member of the ULCOS project, which aims to substantially reduce the CO 2 emissions from the steel making process, ArcelorMittal is looking to build a prototype blast furnace at one of its operations that will be able to capture and store CO 2 gasses in an effective manner. No decision will be taken to implement such project in any of its operations until such feasibility study has been completed.

2. Poweo
ArcelorMittal is also investigating the potential to co-operate with Poweo for the construction of new power plants in the Lorraine region.

3. Research and Innovation
ArcelorMittal and the French government have agreed to study the possibility of cooperating on potential research and innovation projects for the benefit of the Lorraine region. A joint contribution of EUR 20 million is presently being discussed.

Mr LN Mittal president & CEO of ArcelorMittal said that "France is the industrial hub of ArcelorMittal’s European operations and we are very committed to our presence here. We want to strengthen our operations in terms of R&D and value-addition to ensure that we maintain a strong competitive advantage that supports the sustainability of our operations in France. These initiatives and investments have been designed to help us deliver on this aim. I would like to thank President Sarkozy for his support. The President is very dedicated to ensuring that France retains a strong industrial presence and has played an important role in helping us identify these projects. I also want to take this opportunity to reassure all the employees of Gandrange that we will have a solution for each and every one of them.”