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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (80640)	9/30/2011 4:37:18 PM
From: elmatador	1 Recommendation Respond to of 217745

ArcelorMittal to idle Madrid steel mill * Already in talks with unions on idling other Spanish mill * Other steelmakers also cutting steel output LONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Arcelormittal , the world's top steelmaker, will temporarily idle an electric arc furnace and some steel production lines at its long carbon steel producing mill in Madrid on weak demand, it said on Friday. The announcement came only two days after the steelmaker confirmed it was talks with trade unions over a temporary shutdown of 2 electric arc furnaces and seven rolling mills at another Spanish plant, ArcelorMittal Sestao. "Due to continuing weakness in the Spanish construction market, ArcelorMittal will temporarily idle the electric arc furnace and production lines at its long carbon site in Madrid until the situation improves," it said in a statement. "This temporary measure will affect 291 employees, who will become temporarily unemployed under the ERE system and will be re-evaluated at the end of the last quarter of 2011." The steelmaker is also cutting production elsewhere in Europe too. Since early September ArcelorMittal has already announced it will idle two blast furnaces, one in Germany and one in France, as well as one electric arc furnace and two rolling mills in Luxembourg, due to weaker steel demand in Europe. Prior to this, the steelmaker announced in June a temporary production stoppage during the fourth quarter at its plant in Liege, Belgium. The Luxembourg-based group told investors last week that it would weather a possible new recession better than in 2008/2009 because of savings made to date, a healthier balance sheet and its expansion into mining. Other European producers are also cutting capacity, after producing at high levels in the first half this year, as weaker demand, prices and destocking hit their sales. In 2010, ArcelorMittal produced 92,629,000 tonnes of steel, of which 37 percent was produced in Western Europe and 11 percent in Central and Eastern Europe.