ArcelorMittal extends French plant closure: union

ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, will keep the furnaces at its Florange plant in eastern France shut until at least the end of June, union officials said on Tuesday following a meeting with management.

ArcelorMittal halted one furnace at Florange last July and the other in October as part of a wave of production cuts in Europe in response to ailing demand for steel.

CFDT union officials said plant management confirmed the furnaces would remain idle in the second quarter. But they feared the closure would be prolonged until the end of the year.

"Management told us there is a strong probability that the site will remain at a halt in the third and fourth quarters, in other words until the end of the year," Jean-Marc Vecrin of the CFDT told Reuters.

The company declined to comment on the situation ahead of a works council meeting scheduled for February 23.

Workers fear an outright closure of Florange, and the CFDT union said it would use the forthcoming elections in France to publicise the threat to jobs.

"We've got a window of opportunity until May. After that it's all over," Frederic Weber, the CFDT's deputy secretary at Florange, said, referring to the French presidential election.

The idling of production at Florange has led to temporary layoffs of 2,600 out of some 5,000 employees at the site.