ArcelorMittal declared a force majeure on finished steel shipments from its Fos-sur-Mer hot strip mill (HSM) in southern France on Jan 20, due to industrial action on rail lines and at the Port of Marseilles, according to an email response to Davis Index’s query on Jan 24.
The steelmaker also mentioned that while the HSM had been the only facility impeded at present, they were monitoring the impact of delayed raw materials delivery on the blast furnace productivity – but it was “not [yet] a matter of current concern.”
According to ArcelorMittal, the Fos-sur-Mer facility produced more than 3.84mn mt of crude steel in 2019 compared with a slated operational capacity of 4.6mn mt per annum. The HSM plant is capable of producing up to 5mn mt of flat steel.
The Fos-sur-Mer facility consists of: A discharging/loading quay, a sinter plant, a coke plant, two blast furnaces, two basic oxygen converters, two continuous casters, a in-ladle metallurgy treatment installation, a hot strip mill and finishing lines, according to the company’s website.
Since early December 2019, French trade unions have overseen industrial action in protest of President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to reform the country’s retirement & pension schemes.hese schemes consist of 42 different types of public sector employees.