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Overview
- President Emmanuel Macron attended the announcement and urged the company to plan a second furnace and pursue hydrogen, presenting the move as part of France’s reindustrialisation push.
- The project is smaller and later than a shelved 2024 plan that envisioned two electric furnaces and a direct‑reduction unit, which stalled under high energy costs and Chinese competition.
- ArcelorMittal says the electric‑arc furnace will cut emissions per tonne of steel by a factor of three compared with a traditional blast furnace.
- Roughly half of the €1.3 billion outlay is expected to be funded through energy savings certificates, as France and the EU also tout carbon border rules and import quotas to shield European steel.
- Unions escalated criticism, with the CFDT boycotting Macron’s visit and the CGT calling the capacity insufficient, citing ongoing restructuring that includes about 600 job cuts in France and support‑function relocations to India.