Global steel giant Lakshmi Mittal has expressed his surprise at his treatment at the hands of an “irrational” French government minister who had told him his company was no longer welcome in France, reports France 24.
Last month France’s outspoken minister for industrial recovery, Arnaud Montebourg, attacked Mittal over his company’s controversial decision to close two blast furnaces in Florange, eastern France, with the loss of around 630 jobs.
Montebourg, known for being a loose cannon, slammed ArcelorMittal for not respecting France and said it was “no longer welcome" in the country.
Speaking for the first time since Montebourg’s outburst, Mittal - Britain’s richest man - told French daily Le Figaro he was taken aback by the venom of the attack, which was all the more surprising given his significant investments in France.
“Of course I was shocked, by these words, even saddened. I would never have expected to hear something so irrational from a minister,” he said.
“ArcelorMittal has 20,000 employees in France. This country represents 35 percent of our steel production in Europe and we have invested two billion euros in France since 2006.”
After Montebourg’s broadside, tensions mounted further when French President François Hollande appeared to tempt Mittal towards the exit door when he dangled the threat of nationalising the whole of ArcelorMittal’s Florange plant if it pursued its plan to cut jobs.
The rest of the site contains more profitable facilities that Mittal wanted to keep.
Read more of this report from France 24.