ArcelorMittal chief Lakshmi Mittal has vowed to keep his promise to maintain jobs at a French steel plant at the centre of a dispute with authorities in a letter to workers, reports Agence France-Presse.
"We will continue to produce steel of the highest quality in France, and we will work to show our stakeholders in France that we are a company that delivers on its commitments," the Indian-born tycoon said in the letter seen by AFP.
The French government and the steelmaker had been waging high-stakes brinkmanship for weeks over the fate of two blast furnaces at a plant in Florange in northeastern France that ArcelorMittal said were no longer viable.
Last Friday Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault reached an eleventh-hour deal in which ArcelorMittal would keep the 600 jobs and invest at least €180m over five years at the plant. The fate of the furnaces was tied to a decision on an EU carbon capture project.
But Ayrault has struggled since to convince that the deal will prove effective and that Mittal would keep to his word.
On Thursday the European Commission disclosed that ArcelorMittal had withdrawn a request for funding under the EU's carbon capture site, but the company said this was due technical problems and was committed to the programme.
Read more of this AFP report published by The Telegraph.