Business.Steelmaking in France.Cross over Lorraine.The closure of a steelmaking plant annoys the new president.AMONG the first visitors to the Elysee Palace after Francois Hollande's victory in the French presidential election last month were trade-union leaders from ArcelorMittal's steel factory at Florange, in Lorraine.The region is the crucible of France's traditional heavy industry: people have been making iron in Lorraine for more than 300 years.But the blast-furnace fires started to go out last year when recession slashed demand for steel and forced ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker by some distance, to start closing its least efficient plants.By October both Florange's furnaces had been snuffed out, supposedly for a year. Last month the company said they would stay cool for another six months.The unions fear that they will never be fired up again and that steelmaking on a symbolic site will come to an end.After the union leaders' visit Mr Hollande asked Arnaud de Montebourg, the minister for productivity, to get an expert to review the prospects for Florange and to request the governments of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain to "act together vis-a-vis ArcelorMittal"-whatever that means.Union fears are probably well founded: ArcelorMittal has labelled Florange and its plants at Liege, in Belgium, "non-core".
商业。法国的钢铁制造。聚焦洛林。钢铁厂的关闭令新总统烦恼。Francois Hollande上个月赢得法国总统选举后爱丽舍宫的第一批访客中就有来自洛林Florange地区ArcelorMittal钢铁厂的工会领袖。此地是法国传统重工业的熔炉：人们在洛林炼铁已超过300年。但是当去年的衰退严重削弱了钢铁的需求时，高炉的炉火开始熄灭，几乎是世界最大的钢铁厂ArcelorMittal被迫开始关闭它效率不高的工厂。10月份时Florange的高炉已经停产，估计持续一年。上个月公司说他们将再停炉6个月。工会担心公司再也不会恢复生产，具有象征意义的钢铁制造区将终结。与工会领袖会晤后，Hollande先生要求生产部长Arnaud de Montebourg 找一个专家评估Florange的前景，同时要求比利时，德国，卢森堡和西班牙"共同行动vis-a-vis ArcelorMittal"-不管那意味着什么。工会的担心可能成真：ArcelorMittal已经把Florange和它在比利时Liege的工厂标记为"非核心"。
