A French minister cast doubt Sunday on whether the world's top steelmaker ArcelorMittal would keep its end of the bargain after a compromise deal on a key plant that Paris had threatened to nationalize.
French Ecology Minister Ms Delphine Batho told the iTele network that "There has been an agreement but there is no confidence. Mittal has never kept his promises in the past. We are absolutely mobilized and the arm wrestling with Mittal will continue to ensure that the pledges are respected."
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced a deal Friday in which he said ArcelorMittal had committed to invest at least EUR 180 million over five years at the Florange site in northeastern France.
The government and the steelmaker had been waging high stakes brinkmanship for weeks over the fate of two blast furnaces at the plant. ArcelorMittal wanted to shut them for good because of a slump in demand for low end steel products.