French unions want British Steel-type rescue of ArcelorMittal operations

French unions want British Steel-type rescue of ArcelorMittal operations

Unions in France fighting to save 600 jobs at ArcelorMittal operations in the country called for the government to take control of the business, along the lines of the UK government’s nationalisation of British Steel.

For British Steel, Nationalization Looms

British Steel (subsequently privatized in 1988) was a much bigger entity than today’s— which was created in 2016 from assets acquired from Tata Steel and then bought by China’s Jingye Group in 2020. The essential problem—the uncompetitive nature of domestic steel production compared to much cheaper imports, amid a backdrop of industrial decline—is similar and compounded by the UK’s gasdependent energy, now the priciest in Europe. Jingye tried t…