French hint of site buyer raises pressure on Mittal

Raising pressure on the group to agree to a sale, industry minister Arnaud Montebourg told lawmakers the interested party was a private steel industry investor, who wanted to inject money into the site with financial backing from the state.

Montebourg has been pushing hard for the Florange steelworks to be taken temporarily into state hands if Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal refuses to keep two threatened blast furnaces running.

“(The party) is ready to invest nearly 400 million euros to renovate this site,” Montebourg told parliament during question time, without giving the potential investor’s identity.

Montebourg, who spoke as metal workers protested outside the National Assembly, said the aim was for the operation to have zero cost to public finances and that government stakes in other companies could be used to finance a purchase of Florange.

He added that France was ready to move ahead with a temporary takeover of the site if no deal was reached. It would compensate ArcelorMittal for the takeover and let a private industrialist run the steelworks while it looks for a permanent buyer to operate it.

Union officials later said Montebourg had told them the government was considering selling a 1% stake in energy group GDF Suez to finance a rescue of the steelworks, which has become emblematic of president Francois Hollande’s struggle to stem a wave of industrial layoffs.

However, Montebourg later issued a statement saying that

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