Reuters reported that ArcelorMittal confirmed on Monday it will halt steel production at its plant at Sestao in Spain in November and December.

It said “Due to continuing weakness in Spanish steel demand in various sectors, ArcelorMittal has decided to temporarily idle the electric arc furnaces at its site in Sestao during November and December.”

It added “This temporary measure will affect the 400 employees of the site, who will become temporarily unemployed under the ERE system agreed between the union representatives and ArcelorMittal as a measure to face this kind of situations.”

The world's top steel producer had said last week it was in talks with trade unions over a temporary shutdown at Sestao, which includes two electric arc furnaces and seven rolling mills and has a capacity of 1.8 million tonnes of hot rolled steel coils and 600,000 tonnes of pickled coils per year.

Since early September ArcelorMittal has already announced it will idle two blast furnaces, one in Germany and one in France, as well as one electric arc furnace and two rolling mills in Luxembourg and one electric arc furnace and some production lines in Madrid due to weaker steel demand in Europe.

ArcelorMittal told investors last month that it would weather a possible new recession better than in 2008/2009 because of savings made to date, a healthier balance sheet and its expansion into mining.

(Sourced from Reuters)