ArcelorMittal Méditerranée Fos sur Mer steel plant

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ArcelorMittal Méditerranée Fos sur Mer steel plant (also known as Sollac-Méditerranée, Société Lorraine de Laminage Continu, and For-Sur Mer) is a 5100-thousand tonnes per annum (ttpa) blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) steel plant in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in France. ArcelorMittal Méditerranée Fos sur Mer steel plant operates a blast furnace (BF) and basic oxygen furnace (BOF).

Location

The map below shows the exact location of the steel plant in Fos-Sur-Mer, in France.

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Background

The ArcelorMittal Méditerranée - Fos sur Mer steel plant is operated by ArcelorMittal's regional subsidiary, ArcelorMittal Méditerranée, along with ArcelorMittal Méditerranée -Saint Chély d'Apcher steel plant.[1]

History

The ArcelorMittal Méditerranée - Fos sur Mer steel plant was built by Sollac-Méditerranée, a regional subsidiary of the French steel company Sollac.[2]

Solmer (1970–72)

In the mid-1960s the French government pushed Sollac into building a new steel plant at Fos-sur-Mer in the Rhone's Mediterranean delta.[3] Sollac would have preferred a site near Le Havre, since it would have been closer to large markets, but the government's regional development plans took priority.[4] Solmer (Societé Lorraine et Méridionale de Laminage Continu) was formed in November 1970 as a Sollac subsidiary to build and operate the new plant. Sollac was in turn a subsidiary of Wendel-Sidélor.[5] At the same time, Usinor decided to increase the capacity of its Dunkirk plant to 8 million tons per year. Taken with the 4 million tons from Fos-sur-Mer, the two companies would add almost 8 million tons or about 45% of total French output between 1968 and 1973.[6]

By 1971 Wendel-Sidélor was the largest steel producer in France, owning Sacilor, the majority of Sollac, and many smaller facilities. However, its productivity was 40% below that of Usinor.[4] Great hopes were pinned in the Fos-sur-Mer project, but in 1971 Wendel-Sidélor did not have enough revenue to finance the project without assistance. In May 1972 Jacques Ferry of the CSSF helped the government persuade the head of Usinor to help bail out the project, despite his very poor relationship with the head of Wendel-Sidélor. In October 1972 it was agreed that Ferry would head Solmer, which would be jointly controlled by Usinor and Wendel-Sidélor.[5] Solmer was 47.5% owned by Wendel-Sidélor, 47.5% by Usinor and 5% by Thysen.[3]

Industry in crisis (1972–86)

In 1973 Wendel-Sidélor was renamed Sacilor Aciéries et Laminoires de Lorraine and in 1975, Sacilor merged with Marine Firminy.[5] By early 1978 the French steel industry was in crisis, with excess capacity and low prices.[4] After a delay due to the March 1978 elections, the cabinet released details of their rescue plan on 20 September 1978.[5] The government converted part of the accumulated losses of about $8,000 million into state equity shareholding, and covered the remaining losses with loans and guarantees. In effect the companies had been nationalized.[7] Usinor shares were devalued by 33% and Sacilor's by 50%.[4] The unions at once called for a 24-hour stoppage at the Sacilor-Sollac plants throughout Lorraine (including the Fos Sur Mer plant) on 25 September 1978, but there was little they could do to prevent layoffs.[5]

Usinor subsidiary (1986–2002)

In 1986 Usinor and Sacilor were combined under one holding company headed by Francis Mer. The group accounted for 95% of French steel production.[6] The Usinor-Sacilor group undertook an internal reorganization in 1987 into four specialized divisions: Sollac for thin flat products, Ugine for special flat and stainless steel products, Unimetal for long products and Ascometal for special long products.[8] The new Sollac, the largest subsidiary of the group, included the flat products operations of the formerly competing Usinor and Sollac companies.[6] In 1988 the company started to base profit sharing on productivity improvements, with the share calculated separately at each location.[4]

On 1 February 2000 Usinor was restructured geographically. Sollac-Atlantique, Sollac-Lorraine and Sollac-Méditerranée were now fully independent subsidiaries. Sollac-Méditerranée included the French plants at Fos-sur-Mer and Saint-Chély-d'Apcher, and also included plants in Spain, Italy, Turkey and Portugal.[2] In February 2002 Usinor was merged with Arbed (Luxembourg) and Aceralia (Spain) to form Arcelor and in 2006 Arcelor was merged with Mittal Steel to form ArcelorMittal.[9] As of 2008 the subsidiaries were named Société Arcelor Atlantique et Lorraine and Sollac Méditerrannée. The companies were involved in a dispute with the French government over the greenhouse gas emission allowance trading scheme, in which different treatment was being applied to the steel sector and to the chemical and non-ferrous metal sectors.[10]

Sollac Mediterranee was later renamed ArcelorMittal Mediterranee SASU.[11]

Plant Details

Articles and Resources

References

  1. Our Business, ArcelorMittal France
  2. 2.0 2.1 "Modernisation en vue pour Sollac", L'UsineNouvelle (in French), Retrieved on: Oct. 20, 2017
  3. 3.0 3.1 James, Harold (2006), FAMILY CAPITALISM, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-674-02181-5, Retrieved on: Jul. 17, 2017
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Daley, Anthony (1996-02-15), Steel, State, and Labor: Mobilization and Adjustment in France, University of Pittsburgh Pre, ISBN 978-0-8229-7485-7, Retrieved on: Oct. 19, 2017
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Mény, Yves; Wright, Vincent; Rhodes, Martin (1987), The Politics of Steel: Western Europe and the Steel Industry in the Crisis Years (1974-1984), Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-3-11-010517-9, Retrieved on: Oct. 19, 2017
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Godelier, Éric (Summer 2008), ["La naissance d'un géant : Arcelor-Mittal (1948-2006)", French Politics, Culture & Society] (in French), Berghahn Books, 26 (2), JSTOR 42843551
  7. Price, Victoria Curzon (1981-11-26), Industrial Policies in the European Community, Palgrave Macmillan UK, ISBN 978-1-349-16640-4, Retrieved on: Oct. 20, 2017
  8. Mioche, Philippe (April–June 1994), ["La sidérurgie Française de 1973 à nos jours: Dégénérescence et transformation"], Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire (in French), Sciences Po University Press (42), doi:10.2307/3771210, JSTOR 3771210
  9. Our History, ArcelorMittal, Retrieved on: Oct. 19, 2017
  10. EUR-Lex - 62007CA0127 - EN, EUR-Lex, retrieved 2017-10-20
  11. ArcelorMittal Mediterranee SASU (Company Overview), Bloomberg, Retrieved on: Oct. 20, 2017
  12. ArcelorMittal Mediterranee Contact, Kompass, Retrieved on: Mar. 10, 2020
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Fact book 2020" (PDF). ArcelorMittal. Retrieved 2022-03-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  14. 14.0 14.1 "Map of EU Steel Production" (PDF). Eurofer. Retrieved 2022-03-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. 15.0 15.1 "Factbook 2014" (PDF). ArcelorMittal. Retrieved 2022-03-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. "Fact book 2020" (PDF). ArcelorMittal. Retrieved 2022-03-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. "Annual Report 2020" (PDF). ArcelorMittal. Retrieved 2022-03-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. "A Fos-sur-Mer, l'angoisse des 2.500 salariés d'ArcelorMittal". Les Echos (in français). 2020-05-05. Retrieved 2022-03-19.
  19. 19.0 19.1 "MÉTHODOLOGIE POUR LA SÉLECTION D'UN ÉQUIPEMENT DE PROTECTION INDIVIDUELLE". Faculte de Pharmacie. Retrieved 2022-03-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. 20.0 20.1 Our Mills, ArcelorMittal, Retrieved on: May 11, 2020
  21. Fact Book 2018, ArcelorMittal, 2019
  22. Minerals Yearbook 2015, USGS, Aug 2019
  23. "Renovation of blast furnace at ArcelorMittal Méditerranée". Endress. Retrieved 2022-03-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

Other resources

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