Steel giant ArcelorMittal is not welcome in France anymore, the country's industrial minister has said, as he accused the steel giant of "not respecting France", reports The Daily Telegraph.
Arnaud Montebourg said that the country was looking for an industrial partner with which to take the group's operations there over on a temporary basis.
"We do not want Mittal in France any longer because they do not respect France," Mr Montebourg told the French financial daily Les Echos.
"Mittal's lies since 2006 are damning," the French minister said, adding that the company "has never honoured its commitments" to the country.
ArcelorMittal has shut down blast furnaces in Florange, eastern France, but wants to maintain its other activities there, in what has become a showdown with the new Socialist government in France.
Montebourg told Les Echos he was working on a "transitory nationalisation" project for the site. The newspaper said that "the idea would be to associate an industrial operator with a minority capital stake for as long as it takes to stabilise activity" at the plant.
Read more of this report from The Daily Telegraph.