Oviedo (EFE) Union has authorized to undertake this process and they run the risk of being lost.
The steel multinational has 19 days, until July 4, to request the aid that the European Commission, in February, and the Council of Ministers, in April, authorized to launch an investment estimated at one billion euros.
The grant will go towards partially decarbonising steel production in Gijón, where ArcelorMittal operates two blast furnaces that produce hot liquid metal from a mixture of iron ore, coke and limestone.
“There is a significant uncertainty. If these investments are not approved before July 4, it would mean losing European aid for a decarbonization process that has no turning back in the European Union and is crucial for the steel industry”, warned the general secretary of UGT FICA Asturias, Jenaro Martinez.
Moments before participating in the fifth regional committee of FICA UGT Asturias, Martínez has affirmed that the investments in the decarbonization project “are being delayed and delayed in a way that is not understood”, for which reason he has demanded that the multinational comply with the commitments it made almost two years ago.
Expression of interest signed in July 2021
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and that of ArcelorMittal, Lakshmi Mittal, signed a statement of interest on July 13, 2021 that included a multimillion-dollar investment to decarbonise the Gijón factory and the Sestao steelworks.
According to the union leader, it is not understood that, after the requested aid has passed all the European and Spanish Government filters to make it available to the steel giant, its investment committee has not yet approved the commitment to invest in the electric furnace Gijón hybrid or for the iron production plant.
The delay “is causing uncertainty” for which Martínez has stressed that the company must be required “to meet its commitments as soon as possible” and also face investments to have a hybrid steel mill in Avilés that allows guaranteeing the current volume of production and minimize job loss.
“The reality is that we don’t know if the company has changed its strategic position”, he underlined after warning that Spain was the first country that has passed all the filters to mobilize this aid, and remembering that ArcelorMittal is the industrial lung and the engine of economic growth in Asturias. EFE