04年11月25日付けの日本経済新聞の1面に「日産、３工場で操業停止」という記事が出ていた。私はついにくるべきものが来たという「感慨」をもってこの記事を読んだ。

こうなることは、いわば「ゴーン旋風｣の当然の帰結である。

ゴーンは「日産再建」のためにやってきて、歴史に残る大成功をおさめ、「名経営者の誉れ」が高い人物である。彼は思い切った合理化を次々おこない、われわれ気の弱い日本人を驚かせた。

その彼の手法の一つが「資材の調達先を絞り込んで、価格を下げさせる」ことにあった。部品メーカーはゴーンのおかげで、長年の取引先の日産から追放の憂き目にあったところが少なくなかった。

ゴーンのやり口は金儲けの３原則の「３カク」戦法であった。すなわち、義理を欠く、人情を欠く、恥をかくであった。このうち「恥をかく」はなかったが、前の２つはいかんなく実行された。

結果を見ると、ゴーンの大勝利であった。世間はゴーンを誉めそやし、数々の「経営者賞」を彼はもらい、新時代の寵児としてもてはやされた。

鉄鋼業界もゴーンにしてやられた。新日鉄は最大の納入シェアと引き換えに、ゴーンの大幅値引き要求を呑んだ。ついていけない鉄鋼メーカーは長年の納入実績を無視され、撤退のやむなきにいたった。

８０年代のバブル崩壊後、過当競争の繰り返しで、世界一の設備と技術を誇る日本の高炉メーカーもリストラによる人員削減や企業収益の悪化で崩壊寸前にまで追い込まれた。

なぜ、過当競争が行われたかといえば、これは愚かしい経済学者の妄言に、それ以上愚かしい一部の経営者がだまされて、「競争こそ善なり」というあやしげな「哲学｣を妄信したからである。

この日産への鉄鋼価格の引き下げは、たちどころに全産業に普及してしまった。

その結果どうなったかといえば、業績不振が長年続き、株価は額面を下回るところも出てきた。まさに自業自得である。鋼材価格の引き下げに成功したゴーンの目には、鉄鋼経営者が愚かに見えて仕方がなかったであろうが、同情はしなかった。

こういう状態に耐え切れなくなって、鉄鋼業界は集約合併に追い込まれた。ＮＫＫと川崎製鉄はＪＦＥホールディングスに集約され、新日鉄の傘下に住友金属工業と神戸製鋼が入ってしまった。

こうなると、高炉メーカーは事実上２社体制に集約され、価格の交渉力が格段に強化された。こういう事態は日本の国民経済全体にとって好ましいものとは限らない。しかし、ゴーンが乱暴の行動にでた結果としてこうなることは事前に十分、予見できた。

私は高梨昌先生の主催する「現代経済研究会」の末席に参加させていただいた際にこの辺の問題点を報告した。その報告をエイデル研究所から刊行された「日本産業再構築の戦略」という書物の中の１篇に加えていただいた。

「第１章　21世紀に向けての日本鉄鋼業」という拙い論文である。書物が出版されたのは２００３年１０月であるが、原稿はその１年以上前に書き上げたものである。その一部を引用させてもらうと、以下の通りである。

『しかし、そこまで鉄鋼業界を追い込むだけのメリットは需要産業（特に自動車､電機）側には本来無いはずである。もし、需要業界が現状（注ー鉄鋼業界のコスト無視の過当競争体質）をよしとするならば鉄鋼業界の「返し技＝ゴーンすかし（？）」を数年後には食らう可能性があるであろう。すなわち鉄鋼側の価格回復の要求を自動車メーカー側は呑まざるをえないであろう。2002年の6月から大手鉄鋼メーカーは重い腰を上げて、自動車向け鋼板の値上げ交渉にようやく踏み切ったが、自動車メーカーは逆にコスト引き下げ（さらなる値引き）を考えており、鉄鋼側が不退転の決意で望まない限り大きな前進は望めないであろう。』（Ｐ76～77）

今回の鉄不足は中国経済の過熱現象からくる一時的なものであるという見方も可能であろう。しかし、そうは行かない。鉄鋼業界は自在に価格を操れる「武器」を手に入れてしまったのである。

日本の鉄鋼業界以外からいつでも自動車用の鋼板は手に入るなどというのは「俗論」である。韓国の自動車メーカーですら、膨大な冷延鋼板を日本から輸入しているのである。

ゴーン革命は当然といえば当然といえる結果を招いた。もし鉄鋼業界にゴーンがいたら、もっと激しい「ご恩返し」を行っていたに相違ない。まだ、日本人の経営者はマイルドである。

日本経済新聞などを読むと、日産はかなりあわてふためいて、韓国のPOSCOに泣きついたり、ヨーロッパのアルセロールに急遽、供給を要請したりしているようである。

ひどい記事になると中国の宝山製鉄所からいずれ供給を受ける自動車会社もあるらしい。結論からいうと、ずべてだめである。POSCO が乗用車の外装材や造船の特殊加工用鋼板の供給が可能ならとっくの昔にやっている。

宝山云々にいたっては論外の沙汰である。アルセロールのほうがまだましだが、これとて日本の技術におんぶしてやっとこさつじつまを合わせているというのが現状である。それにいうまでもなく欧州のミルは小型かつ老朽したものが多く、アメリカ同様原料立地であり、コストが高い。

その企業の生産トン数が何千万トンだから自動車用高級鋼板の供給が可能であるというような議論はお粗末極まりない俗論である。そういう記事でも日本の読者をダマシ続けられるからいいようなものだが、同時に記者の無知を告白しているようなものだ。

鉄鋼連盟の資料室（茅場町の鉄鋼会館も２階）にいけば私の愚著も含めておびただしい資料がある。

06年のはじめから話題になっていた世界最大の粗鋼生産規模をもつミタル（Ｍｉｔｔａｌ）スチール社が世界第2位のアルセロール(Arcelor)への敵対的な買収について、ついにアルセロール側が折れ、ミタルの資本を受け入れることに合意した。

ただし、ミタルがもつアルセロールの株式は43.6％でその後の上限は45％とするようである。3年後にはミタルが経営のトップのポストを獲得する。

ミタルはオランダに本社を置くがインド人資本の会社であり、05年の傘下企業の粗鋼生産は約6,300万トンと新日鉄の3,200万トンの2倍の規模である。

アルセロールはルクセンブルグに本社を置くヨーロッパ企業であり、05年の粗鋼生産は4,700万トンであるから、この両社の「合併」によって1億1000万トンという世界の10億トンの粗鋼生産の1割を占める巨大鉄鋼会社が成立することになる。

誠にご同慶の至りである。この巨大鉄鋼会社の成立によって世界の鉄鋼業界あるいは日本の鉄鋼業界にどのような影響があるであろうか？日本の新聞の論調では世界の鉄鋼市場でかなりの「圧力」を受けることと、「次は日本の鉄鋼会社が狙われる（？）」などという議論が多いようである。

しかし、日本の鉄鋼会社にとっては願ってもない「シアワセ」な事態が起こりつつあるわけで、新日鉄やＪＦＥといった大手鉄鋼会社の株価がこのところ上げ基調に転じている。

今回の合併劇に先立つミタルの急成長とアルセロールの成立についていえば、両方ともいわば「ダメ企業群」の一大トラスとであるという見方ができよう。トラストとは資本集約である。

採算の良くない企業が経営権を集約して、一大企業に編成をしなおし、市場競争に立ち向かうというものである。こういう言葉自体最近の日本の大学ではほとんど教えられていない。

最近、ある米国の一流経済紙の編集スタッフが「カルテル」という言葉を知らないのに驚かされた。こういう新聞記者が鉄鋼業の分析をきちんとして正しい記事を書くなどということはほとんど期待できないであろう。

つい最近まで、世界の粗鋼生産の規模は7～8億トンでかなり長期的に安定（低迷）していた。その中で、世界一の生産規模を誇っていたのは、第2次大戦後では米国であり、ついでソ連であった。西ドイツや日本は戦後急成長を遂げ、世界のトップ・レベルの鉄鋼生産国にのし上がった。

その中でも、日本は臨海製鉄所の建設と最新技術（転炉、連続鋳造、大型ホット・ストリップ・ミル、連続焼鈍設備、電気亜鉛メッキ鋼板などの数え切れぬ技術革新の集積）の開発によって、世界鉄鋼業のリーダーの位置を1970年代から維持し続けている。

しかし、鉄鋼先進国である米国や欧州の鉄鋼業は一部の例外を除いて、これらの技術革新に乗り遅れ、衰退の一途をたどってきたのである。特に米国の大手製鉄会社はひどかった。

今回、改めてミタルが2005年4月に買収した米国のインターナショナル・グループ（ＩＳＧ）の中身を見ると、かって世界一だなどといわれた（今でも米国ではそう信じている人が少なくない）旧ベスレヘム・スチール社のスパローズ・ポイント製鉄所などが入っている。

また、同じくバーンズ・ハーバー製鉄所や、旧インランド・スチール社のインディアナ・ハーバー製鉄所など一昔前は「世界に冠たる一流製鉄所」が入っている。

(ISGの出発点はLTVスチールが2002年チャプター11入りしたのち、投資会社W.I.Ross社が3億3千万ドルで買収してできた、その後、2003年5月にベスレヘム・スチールを買収するなど、同種の高炉会社を次々買収して規模を拡大したが、おそらく投資としてはうまくいかなかったものと推測される）

これらの米国の元大製鉄所は現在では残念ながら、国際競争力を失ってしまった。おまけに、潜在的な年金負担の大きさを考えれば、将来的にも「企業」としては全く魅力のないものになってし合った。

しかし、ミタルはこのISGグループ企業を傘下におさめることによって、「念願」の薄板分野に本格的に進出することができた。もちろん、このグループは自動車用鋼板も生産してきたが、いまや、日本の高炉メーカーが製造するような高級自動車用鋼板の生産は技術的にも設備的にもできない。

ミタルはもともと1976年にインドネシアのスラバヤで鉄筋棒鋼の単圧メーカー（電炉などの上工程をもたない）として、イスパット・インド（Ispat Indo)なる会社としてスタートしたのである。そういっては語弊があるが「吹けば飛ぶような｣小さな存在だったのである。

それが、わずか30年で世界一の生産規模を持つ大会社にまで成長したのである。ミタルの成長戦術は世界中で不況で苦しんでいるダメ企業を安い価格で次々買収しまくっていったのである。それも1995年以降に活発化したのであり、それまではほとんど世間では知られいなかった。

工場所在地は東欧（ルーマニア、ポーランド、チェコ）から西欧、米国・カナダ、メキシコからカザフスタンにまで及んでいる。こういう広範囲に点在する企業をまとめて経営しているのだから、なかなかのものである。

しかし、その企業内容（設備など）は率直に言って、相当問題のある代物である。日本の高炉メーカーなどはとても食欲がわかない企業ばかりである。

それではなぜ、ミタルがここ数年で急成長を遂げたがといえば、それは世界の粗鋼規模（市場）が7～8億トンから一挙に10億トンにまで拡大したためである。その原動力となったのは中国の急成長である。

中国での鉄鋼消費の拡大がきわめて大きなインパクトを与えた。それによって、安物の建材用鉄鋼製品（鉄筋棒鋼など）の市況が高水準で推移したのである。オンボロ会社はこういうときにはかえってえ巨額の利益が上げられる。

ミタルは鉄鋼業界においては思いがけず時代の寵児になった。ミタルは日本の、あるいは世界の鉄鋼業界にとって「有難い存在」ナのである。それは世界の粗鋼生産の10％のシェアを有する大トラストとして「地球規模での市況対策」を行ってくれるからである。

ところが、ミタルの問題は薄板生産を得意とする米国の旧大手メーカーの集合体とも言うべきインターナショナル・スチール・グループ（ＩＳＧ）の買収（2005年4月）によってミタルは薄板市場の世界に本格的に入ってしまったことにある。

もともと国際競争力を失った米国の旧高炉大手には日本企業も80年代から巨額の資金をつぎ込み、何とか再生させようとしたが、ことごとく失敗し大やけどを負ったのである。

ＩＳＧは主に旧ベスレヘム・スチールとインランド・スチール社の主要工場で成り立っているが国際競争力のなさでは同じことである。

米国への投資で何とか格好を付けているのは，意外にも神戸製鋼が提携している旧ＵＳスチールのみといっても過言ではないであろう。これは神戸製鋼の先見の明というべきかもしれない。新日鉄はインランド・スチールと比較的関係が深かった。

2005年に入ってからのミタルの課題は「薄板市場で勝負」しなければならなくなったことである。実際、中国でも最近の過大投資によって薄板が過剰生産になり、安値で米国や東南アジア市場に輸出をし始めた。その結果はミタル・グループの損益に直接影響した。

ＷＳＪは06年2月15日の記事でミタルの05年4Ｑの純利益は58％減少したと報じている。また、WSJの06年5月13日の記事（インターネット版）にはミタルとアルセロールの利益が大幅に落ち込んでいるという記事が書かれている。

ミタルの06年1Qの利益は7億4300万ドルで前年同期の11億5千万ドルにくらべ、35％の減益になっているというのである。

ただし、売り上げは64億2千万ドルから84億3千万ドルに1年間で31％も増えている。これはISGグループの合併により売り上げ規模が拡大したものだが、同時期に中国からの薄板の安値輸出攻勢によって収益が悪化しているのである。

アルセロールも06年1Qは20％の減益となった（利益は9億4900万ユーロから7億6100万ユーロに減少）と報じられている。ただし、アルセロールは買収防御策として自社株買戻しを行い、そのために減益になった部分もあるといっている。

ミタルとしては薄板市場に参入したからには、高級自動車用鋼板の分野に食い込まなければならない。そこで注目したのはアルセロールである。しかし、アルセロールもフランス、スペイン、ベルギー、ドイツ（ブレーメン社）の「負け組み連合」という色彩はぬぐえない。

アルセロールは自動車用鋼板の世界シェアは15％あるという話である。しかし、自動車用鋼板といってもピンからキリまであるが最高級品は自力ではやれないのでもっぱら新日鉄に頼っているというのが現状である。

新日鉄は適当にお付き合いしているようだが、自動車用高級鋼板の中核技術がアルセロールに渡ってしまうと大変なことになることは十分認識していることであろう。

日産のゴーンはアルセロールに何とか新日鉄並みの自動車用高級鋼板を作らせたいと思っていることであろう（上の＃23の記事参照）。

と言うのはゴーンが叩きのめしたはずの日本の高炉メーカーが新日鉄グループ（+住金＋神戸製鋼）とＪＦＥという事実上の2社体制になって、市場の支配権を奪還してしまい、逆に自動車メーカーに対して強い価格交渉権をもつにいたったからである。

アルセロールの株主にすればミタルが高い値段を付けてくれればこれほどありがたいことはない。アルセロールの株式をミタルがいくらで手に入れるのかは細部は必ずしも明らかではないが266億ユーロ（約3兆9000億円）と言われて、当初のオファーよりも80％も高くなっている

アルセロールとしてはミタルが経営権を握るとナニをしでかすか分からないという不気味さを感じていることであろう。中核となっているフランス企業はまだしも、スペインやベルギーの工場は閉鎖されてしまう可能性もある。そうなると直ちに失業問題に直結する。

日本の高炉メーカーとしてはミタルが一大企業集団を形成したことによって棒鋼などの一般建材以外に薄板の市況ｙ品（一般グレード）の市場価格の安定に貢献してくれることが何よりありがたい話しである。

ミタルが日本の高炉メーカーの買収に乗り出してくるのではないかという「オソレ」がないかということである。可能性は否定できないが、日本の企業の経営が難しいことはミタルの幹部もよく認識しているはずである。

もし、ミタルが日本の企業に狙いをつけるとすれば、国際的に見ても異常に低い評価を与えられてきた日本の鉄鋼株は高騰することは間違いない。アルセロールというボロ会社集団（失礼？）にすら4兆円近い値段がついたのだから、日本の場合その数字は天文学的になるであろう。

それにしても、日本の高炉メーカーへの技術や設備やマンパワーに対する「市場の評価」とやらがこれまで低すぎた。それは、不勉強なマスメ・ディアにも責任があるかも知れないが、実は最大の責任者は鉄鋼企業の経営者自身であったということが言えよう。

また、ミタルはソモソモ巨額資金をどこから借り入れているのだろうかという疑問が当然沸いてくる。それは自社株の発行と言うホリエモン的錬金術もあるあろうが、シティ・バンクなどの巨大銀行とヘッジ・ファンドもかなり貸し込んでいることは間違いであろう。

日本の金融機関や投資家はこの手のやり口に案外引っかかりやすい、「ワキノアマサ」があるから要注意である。

ここ数日、新日鉄の株価が上がっている。業績が良いからかと思ったら何とミッタルの買収を意識して市場が動いているらしい。ミッタルの動きを日本中に宣伝してくれたのが5月7日のNHKスペシャル「敵対的合併を防げ、新日鉄トップの決断」であるという。

私は、最初の放送を見損なったので昨夜の再放送を見た。率直に言って良くもここまで大騒ぎをやれるもんだという感想である。

これだけ騒げば三村社長の求心力がいやでも高まるが、新日鉄の社員はまさに「フル・空回転」をやらされている。お気の毒というほかないが、結構それで社内の脚光を浴びている人間もいることだろう。

私は子供の頃、まだ日本は戦争をやっていて、大人達がB29の空襲が田舎町にもあるというので、消防訓練や住宅の強制撤去や防空壕作りなど大人たちが夢中になって朝から晩までやっていた光景を思い出してしまた。日本中が「フル・空回転」をやっていたのである。

ミタルのアルセロールの合併についてのコメントは昨年6月に書いておいた（下記参照）。ミタルの06年の業績はやけに良かったということだが、今後はその保証はない。というのは中国が有り余る過剰設備を背景に、世界市場に一般品（コマーシャル・グレード＝低級品）の鋼材を大量供輸出しているからである。

ミタルは世界中のダメ企業を世界の鉄鋼不況時に買い集めて大きくなった典型的な「企業トラスト」である。ミタルが今のところうまくいっているのは目下のところ世界の鋼材価格が比較的安定していたからである。

これからは、その保証はない。そうなるとミタルの経営基盤は揺らぐことになる。ここ1～2年のうちに形勢がハッキリすることであろう。要は中国の鉄鋼業界の動きである。

中国政府は国内企業が鉄鋼のダンピング輸出競争に走ることを極度に恐れている。そのワケは過剰投資と過剰設備に悩む国内の鉄鋼業が崩壊の危機に瀕するからである。それは中国経済全体を揺るがすことになる。

ミタルは買収したアルセロールをはじめ、米国の旧巨大ミルの経営で手一杯である。特に米国の製鉄会社は潜在的赤字の巨大な塊である。中国の輸出は米国市場への輸出を急増させている（後日数字的に説明します）。これはミタルにとっては最大の脅威である。

新日鉄がミタルの買収を防げなどといって社内の引き締めや「個人株主対策』などを一生懸命やっている様子が映し出されていた。ご苦労様である。「今日もミタル、明日もミタル」といったところであろう。

前にも述べたようにミタルが欲しいのは新日鉄の資産ではなくて自動車用鋼板など世界に冠たる「製鉄技術」である。新日鉄はそれをアルセロールに部分的に提供してきた。そのすばらしさにミタルは気がついて、（あるいは知っていて）その技術をくれと言い出したのである。

それを渡したら新日鉄やJFEはおしまいである。しかし、鉄鋼の技術というものはスーツ・ケースにいれて持ち運びが出来るものではない。その多くは「設備に体化」されているし、技術者と熟練工（両方とも日本型長期雇用によって支えられている）が身につけているものある。

スーツ・ケースに入るものを買ったところで私がパソコンの使い方をマニュアルを見て動かすようなもので、簡単には使いこなせるものではない。

シティ･バンクなどの巨大金融機関やヘッジ・ファンドがカネを出し合って、それにホリエモン流の錬金術で成り立っているミタルは今までの投資が期待された短期の収益を上げることを最大の使命とする会社である。

ミタルには新日鉄を買っているヒマなどあるはずがない。ミタルの希望は新日鉄がアルセロールに提供している自動車用鋼板技術を継続的に提供してくれということであろう。新日鉄はそれについては合意しているはずである。ただし、世界中に（特に米国に）技術を供給してくれという話しははっきりお断りしたという。

新日鉄の経営陣とすれば「総動員令」を発動して社内の引き締めを図るのは、それなりの経営戦術としてはゴモットモというほかない。

NHKのこの特集は力作ではあるが、経済的背景の分析が全くないから、表面的なミタルの規模の大きさを強調することによってミタル脅威論めいた論調になってしまっている。ミタルという会社の分析がもっとおこなわなければ本当に脅威かどうかはわからないではないか。ただ、世界一のすごい会社だということでおわってしまう。

4.NHK, BSスペシャル、「鉄鋼王　ミッタル」を見て（07年7月1日）

07年5月10日の続編をＮＨＫがやるというので、もと鉄鋼会社に勤務していたものとしてつい見てしまった。内容的には前の番組から、新日鉄が大騒ぎをしている部分がカットされただけのものである。

ミッタルはアルセロールを買収して世界一の鉄鋼会社になったが、世界の粗鋼シェアの10％しかないので、20％くらいまで増やしたいという「大風呂敷」を広げていたのを紹介した内容であった。

言外に、日本の鉄鋼会社もターゲットになっているかのごとき印象を与えるものであった。しかし、それは新日鉄やＪＦＥではありえない。韓国のＰＯＳＣＯは危ないかもしれないが。

ミッタルの問題点は上の文章でも指摘したが、あえて繰り返すと最大の問題はアルセロールの買収に資金をいくら投じたかである。それまで1株22ユーロだった株を38.5ユーロで全株買取り、アルセロールのブラジルの子会社の株も全株買い取るなど膨大な資金を投入したはずである。

その資金は欧米の大銀行からの借り入れや、ヘッジファンドからの投資によるものと、ミッタルの自社株との交換などで調達したものであろう。

ネットの資金投入はいくらかは明らかにされていないが、その投下資本に対するリターンすなわち利益がどれくらいあるかが問題になる。

ミッタルはもともと潰れかかったオンボロ会社を買い叩いて、世界中に生産拠点を持つことが出来だが、生産品種は鉄筋棒鋼などのいわゆる「市況品種」であり、鋼材市況の上下によって収益が大きく変動する。

板の分野に出ようとしてアメリカのかつての巨大メーカーで倒産寸前の会社の連合体であるＩＳＧをロス氏から買ったという。（その経緯については上記の＃2参照）

実際はＩＳＧから「借りている」か単に組んでいるだけかもしれない。現在のミッタッル・アルセロールにそのロス氏が陰気な面構えで「取締役」として残留している。もしかするとミッタル・アルセロールの本当のボスはロス氏かも知れないという印象を私は持った。

ミッタルとＩＳＧの連合では世界の鉄鋼市場において「屁のツッパリ」にもならないのでアルセロールを買収したということである。これで世界の「自動車鋼板市場」にも足場を築いたということになっている。

しかし、それは本当であろうか？実はアルセロールも「自動車用鋼板」の本当に大事な部分（高張力外装材など）では自力でやれないところが多く、新日鉄から技術援助を受けているのである。

もちろんミッタル・アルセロールがそのトップ・レベルの高級鋼板を自力で開発するような力はない。それをやったところで利益を出せるかどうかは不明である。

となるとミッタル・アルセロールは現在の「プロダクト・ミックス」すなわち一般鋼材分野で利益を上げていかなければならない。

その最大の障害になるのが中国の鉄鋼業である。中国の鉄鋼業は世界の2～3流の技術レベルの投資でここ数年で2億トンほど（正確な計算ではない）生産規模を拡大した。これがナダレを打って世界市場に進出し始めた。（日本には今のところなぜか余りはいってきていないようである）

今のところは中国政府が「安売り」にブレーキをかけているのでさほど世界の鋼材市場は下がっていないが、問題は近いうちに顕在化する。そうなるとミッタル・アルセロールの利益は激減することは間違いない。ここ1～2年のうちにそうなる可能性がある。

ミッタルが「次は日本の高炉ミルの買収」などに手を出せるような状態ではとてもないのだ。株価が比較的安く、アルセロールなどよりはよっぽどマシな鋼板･特殊鋼製造技術をもっている神戸製鋼すら（失礼）買えないであろう。

ミッタルはオンボロ企業をリストラによって「高収益企業」にしたなどといっているが、実はここ数年鋼材市場が上がったのでタマタマ儲かったというに過ぎない。

30億円でどこか東欧のミルに「高級鋼板」設備を作ったなどという話しが紹介されていたが、笑わせるなといいたくなる。30億円の設備がナニが作れるか番組製作者はまるで分かっていないのではないか。

結論いうと、鉄鋼業に限らず、資本主義社会の企業のキーワードは「企業規模」ではなくて「利潤率」である。ＮＨＫの特集はその問題には全く触れていなかった。

企業規模が大きく市場の支配力が強ければ「独占」や「寡占」によって大きな利益が得られるということである。ミッタルは多少「規模の利益」を享受しているかもしれないが、そのためにはミッタル・アセロールの現在の規模では「小さすぎて話しにならない」のである。

だからといって無制限にカネをつぎ込んで企業買収を強行したところで、それに見合う「利益」があげられる保証はない。いくら頑張っても中国の鉄鋼会社がむちゃくちゃをやったらひとたまりもないのだ。

ミッタルはいまや「石油産業」に着目し始めているようである。

5.アルセロール・ミッタル赤字転落で30億ドルの増資（09年4月30日）

アルセロール・ミッタル社は09年1Ｑ1～3月期）の業績が11億ドルの赤字となった。前年同期は23.7億ドルの純利益であった。

09年1Ｑの”Ebitda＝Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization"は8億8300万ドルと前年同期比50.4億ドルに比べ82.5％ものマイナスとなった。

同社は2ＱにはEbitdaは12～15億ドルのまで回復すると見ている。それは価格が2、3Ｑにかけて回復する見通しだからという。その根拠としては自動車需要などが少し上向いてきたことを挙げている。

1Ｑは異常に厳しい結果となり、売り上げが151億ドルと前年同期の298.1億ドルに比べほぼ半減した。

同社は資金不足に備えるため近々30億ドルの資金調達をおこなうという。増資で25億ドル、転換社債で5億ドルという内訳である。ラクシュミ・ミッタル会長は増資の10％を引き受けるという。

同社の09年3月末の借入金は267億ドルであると公表している。

資金調達のために増資をおこなうということは同社がかなり資金的に苦しくなっていることを物語っている。企業にとっては赤字よりも怖いのが資金不足である。資金不足は倒産に直結する。

どこにどれだけ借金があるかは明らかではないが、同社はアルセロール買収のときにかかなり高い買い物をしており、容易ならざる事態に直面しつつあるように見える。
というのは鉄鋼需要の大半は建設向けであり、これは簡単には回復しない。同社は日本の高炉メーカーと異なり自動車向けのような「高級鋼材」はさほど得意ではない。あくまで、建材の市場で中国、ロシアなどとの価格競争をおこなうことになるからである。

いずれにせよ2009年は膨大な過剰設備を抱える中国の鉄鋼メーカーなどと死闘を繰り返すことになる。そのトバッチリは日本にも当然やってくる。要警戒である。

同社の従業員数は世界で30万人おり、近々大幅な首切りと工場閉鎖は不可避の状況である。特に、アルセロール系の工場閉鎖は大きな政治問題に直結する。

6ア.ルセロール・ミッタル本社を労働者が襲撃（09年5月13日）

5月13日付のWSJインターネット版によれば、５月１２日（火）にアルセロール・ミッタル社の本社（ルクセンブルグ）で年次株主総会を開催しているところにフランスとベルギーから約１千人の同社の労働者が押しかけ、建物に投石をして窓ガラスを破損したり、発炎筒を投げ込むなどして、工場閉鎖などに抗議したという。

アルセロール・ミッタル社はいわば世界中のオンボロ工場を買い集め規模だけは年産１億トンを超える「世界一の鉄鋼会社」になったなどとわがNHKなどはむやみに喧伝していたが、ひとたび不況が訪れると大幅減産を強いられ、「競争力のない」工場は閉鎖を余儀なくされる。

ではどこの工場が競争力があるのかというと、それがなかなか見出せないのが同社の特徴である。

同社の問題はきわめて深刻であり、おそらくフランス政府なども旧アルセロールのユジノール工場などについては閉鎖を避けるべく動き出す可能性もある。日本のメディアの筆法を借りれば「予断を許さない」状態が今後も続くことは間違いない。

7.アルセロール・ミッタル09年2Ｑは赤字転落（09年7月29日）

世界一の巨（虚）大鉄鋼会社であるアルセロール・ミッタル社が09年2Ｑ（4～6月）の短期決算で7億9200万ドルの純損出を計上した。08年2Ｑは58億4000万ドルの純利益を上げていたことを考えればまさに雲泥の差でる。これは12億ドルの特別損失（税引き前）がったためというが詳細はは不明である。

09年2Ｑのエビタダ（Ｅｂｉｔｄａ＝ｅｒｎｉｎｇs　ｂｅｆｏｒｅ　ｉｎｔｅｒｓｔ，taxes, depreciation and amortization)　は12億2000万ドルで前年同期の80億5000万ドルに比べマイナス85％であった。1Ｑはエビタダ（金利、税、償却前の粗利）はわずかに8億8300万ドルであったことから比べればこれでも38％改善されているという。

3Ｑはエビタダ・ベースで14～18億ドルベースになるという。これは生産増加と原材料コストの低下が期待できるからである。

売上高は09年2Ｑは152億ドルと前年同期の378億ドルに比べ60％減であった。落ち込みの大きさは異常である。

アルセロール・ミッタルは毎回指摘するように一般鋼材が主体の会社であり、自動車ブームが起こってもそれには必ずしもついていけない。中国の鉄鋼業と国際市場で4つに組んで闘わなければならない。設備も全体的に旧式である。

一方、中国は内需刺激効果により生産は落ちていないどころか過去最高水準にあるという。

（ＷＳＪ，09年7月29日、電子版参照）

8.中国の２０１０年の鉄鋼需要は5％減る？（09年10月13日）

中国鉄鋼協会は2010年の国内需要は5％減少すると言う見通しを発表した。2009年は対前年比19％増加する。これは中国政府の内需刺激策と、自動車需要などが好調のためである。

ただし、2009年1～8月の粗鋼生産は3億5,137万トンと前年同期比で+5.2％しか伸びていない。これは中国が輸出を減らしたためである。

しかし、インド（+1.5％）を除く主要国の鉄鋼生産は軒並み大幅減となっている。米国は-48.4％の大幅減となった。ドイツが-39.5％、日本が-36.0％である。

下の表に見るとおり、中国の生産量が、世界合計の半分近い48.7％に達している。2008年1～8月のシェアは37.9％であった。また、インドが世界第3位の鉄鋼生産国になっていることとが注目される。

中国が鉄鋼産業への投資を急拡大させたことが、今日の「繁栄」のモトであるが、再三指摘しているように世界の2～3流の技術で数億トンに上る設備投資をおこなってしまったことと、製鉄所のほとんど全てが内陸に立地しており、国際競争力という面では圧倒的に不利な状況にある。

中国の国内需要が減れば、安値で輸出せざるをえなくなり、それは多くの製鉄所を赤字経営にしてしまい、中国の経済危機につながりかねない。中国政府は企業の集約化による余剰設備の削減と、経営基盤の強化を行い、鉄鋼産業の崩壊を何とか食い止めようとしている。

中国の膨大な鉄鋼投資は大部分が銀行借入でおこなわれており、ひとたび倒産の連鎖が起これば、金融危機に直結することになりかねない。

なお、従来国際鉄鋼協会（IISI)が存在したが、昨年から世界鉄鋼協会（World Steel Association)と名前を変え、参加国を増やし、事務局を北京においている。現在、北京で世界鉄鋼協会の年次総会が開かれている。

9．アルセロール・ミッタル価格カルテルで2億7650万ユーロの罰金（2010－7－8）

アルセロール・ミッタルなど欧州の17社は1984年～2002年にかけてプレストレス鋼線について価格カルテルを行っていたとして、5億1850万ユーロの制裁金がかけられた。そのうち、最大手のアルセロール・ミッタル社は2億7650万ユーロ（約300億円）の罰金を科せられる。

ヨーロッパ委員会の公正取引局はドイツのザールシュタール社（DWK/Saarstahl）の供述に基づき、プレストレス鋼線の価格協定が長年にわたって存在したことを知り、一斉家宅捜索を行い、証拠を確保し、上記の罰金を科すこととなった。

ザールシュタール社は「進んで罪状を告白した」ために罰金を免除されるという。

価格カルテルの会合は18年間で550回以上持たれ、各国持ち回りで開催された。

捜査に協力したアルセロール・ミッタル社は罰金の軽減措置を受けたという。また、ほかの3社は罰金をフルに科せられると倒産の恐れがあるため、20％、50％、７５％の減免を受けたという。「花も実もあるおとりなし」である。

フィナンシャル・タイムズの2010年7月1日の記事には社別の罰金額が報じられている。

今回はプレストレス鋼線というどちらかというとマイナーな品種について、しかもかなり過去の事犯であるが、ほかの主力品種についてはどうなっているのであろうか？「たたけば埃がモウモウと出」そうな感じは否めない。日本の高炉メーカーも要注意である。

10.中国が輸出急拡大世界市場混乱へ（2012-7-25）

中国の鉄鋼産業は国内需要の縮小に伴い、輸出に活路を求める動きが活発化してきた（Bloomberg 2012-7-25電子版）。
その影響を最も受けるのはアルセロール・ミッタルである。

いっぽう中国は膨大な設備投資を行っているが設備規模が小型であり、内陸にほとんどが立地しているため国際競争力がもともとない。温家宝首相はそういう現実を踏まえ「高級化対策」投資を今後３年間に230億ドルをかけて実行することを明らかにした。対象は自動車用と住宅用の鋼材である。

そういった中期対策では間に合わないので中国鉄鋼業は安値輸出に踏み切ったのである。2012年6月には生産の8.7％を輸出した。これは2010年7月以来の高い水準である。価格も過去2年で最低水準まで下がっている。これは世界市場に一般品鋼材を輸出しているアルセロール・ミッタルと米国ミルを直撃している。

中国は鉄鋼生産を毎日200万㌧行っている。年率では7億2千万㌧になる。これは2011年比5.4％の増加である。中国の年間鉄鋼生産の能力は9億㌧あり、そのうち8千万㌧が最近1年間に稼働開始した「新鋭」設備である。

価格が下がれば減産すればよいよいう論理は中国には当てはまらない。中国の鉄鋼業は最近投資を急増させたため固定費（焼却＋金利）が高く、減産をすれば赤字が拡大するという矛盾を抱えている。輸出をすれば稼働率は確保できるし、現金収入が得られるからである。中国の銀行は鉄鋼業に巨額の融資を行っているため、鉄鋼業が倒産すると突如巨額の不良債権を抱えるｋとになる。

また、鉄鋼業の資本家は多くが地方政府であり、いくら赤字が増えても簡単には破綻させせられない。そのため、懸命に省内の企業の統合を進めているが規模が小さい割には新規投資が多いので簡単に過剰設備を廃却できない。また、国家資本のため人員整理も簡単にはできない。労務問題はすぐにストや暴動に発展しかねない。これは共産党政権にも打撃を与える。

このような中国を震源地とする国際競争の激化は日本をはじめ韓国の鉄鋼業も揺るがすことになる。現実に鉄鋼先進国の企業業績は急速に悪化している。これからは世界の鉄鋼業は苦難の道を歩むことになる。その期間はいつまで続くか見当もつかない。

11. ドイツのザルツギッター社が1500人の人員整理（2013-9-27）

ドイツの第2位の鉄鋼会社のザルツ・ギッター社は現在25,000人を超える従業員を雇用しているが、ヨーロッパの長引く不況で2012年は税引き後1億ユーロの赤字となり、今年も上期ですでに3億1520万€の赤字を計上している。

そのため同社では全社で1,500人の辞任整理を行うことで労組と合意に達したと報じられている。

ティッセン社も過剰人員対策として1週間の労働時間を34時間から31時間に2014年10月から削減することで労組と合意している。ティッセンはヨーロッパの不況に加え米国アラバマ州で買収した企業が全くの失敗に終わり、ブラジルの投資の失敗もあり事態は他社に比べ深刻である。

12.タタ製鉄がイギリスで1000名以上解雇（2016-1-28）

タタ製鉄がイギリスの元BSCの主力工場のPort Talbot製鉄所で750人を解雇すると発表した。そのほかの製鉄所でも300人ほどの書き湖が決まっている。毎日の損失が100万ポンドに達するという。これは中国からのダンピング輸出が大きく影響している。

Tata Steel have announced it is to shed a further 1,050 jobs in the UK. A statement given out by the company claims 750 jobs will go at the Port Talbot plant in South Wales, the biggest steel plant in Britain. A company statement went on to say that the action was taken to help save the rest of the site from closure or mothballing, and that the plant was losing £1million a day.

Another 300 jobs will be lost at steel mills at two other Welsh plants, at Llanwern near Newport South Wales and at the Trostre tinplate manufacturing facility located just outside Llanelli, West Wales. Jobs will also go at Hartlepool in the North East and at Corby in the East Midlands. In the October 2015 job cuts of 1,200, Tata announced that, although it was expected to be affected, the Corby plant was not involved.

During December 2015, Tata Steel entered into “advanced negotiations” to sell its Long Products Europe division to private equity company Greybull Capital. The Long Products business in Europe manufactures plates, sections, wire rod and semi-finished steel for various markets, including construction, ship-building, engineering and energy at plants in Teesside and Scunthorpe in the UK and at Hayange, north-eastern France. Job losses and wage cuts as well as cuts to pension entitlements are expected after the takeover is complete. The unions have already offered their help in seeing the takeover go ahead.

Within days of this latest Tata announcement, Yorkshire-based specialist steel makers Sheffield Forgemasters announced it was cutting 100 of its 700 jobs. The company specialise in steel castings for the energy and civil nuclear industry. Chairman Tony Pedder, who led a “buy out” in 2005, explained that the reason for the job cuts was “reduced activity in the traditional oil and gas sector, with oil prices down to a level that is deferring much potential new investment. We have been working with our major customers, suppliers and in particular, our secured lender, with whom we have concluded an extension to our financing facility. This will provide adequate funding for the business through to the end of March 2017.”

The accounts covering the last 18 months and published on the day the job cuts were announced showed a loss of £9.4 million. This is the first loss since the buyout.

Politicians, union leaders and senior officials within the steel industry called the job cuts a “wake up call” for the government. The latest job cuts, as before, are blamed on the dumping of cheap Chinese steel, higher UK environment taxes and a strong pound. The unions made the usual threadbare demand that the Conservative government take “decisive action.” Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the steel industry’s largest union, Community, said that “every sector of the UK steel industry is caught up in the current crisis. We keep saying that delays in implementation of support and a lack of swift and decisive action by government only puts more steel jobs at risk.”

In an earlier outburst Rickhuss declared, “The spectre of the UK’s cosy relationship with China hangs over the entire steel industry. The Prime Minister needs to stand up to China and stand up for our steel industry.”

No doubt many steel workers in Britain are, in contrast, asking when and where will Rickhuss and his cohorts in the steel unions take up a fight for steel workers.

The announced cuts in jobs pensions and conditions connected to the takeover of Tata Steels Long Products Europe division by Greybull Capital was met with the full co-operation of the steel unions. Community had earlier failed in an attempt to aid the selloff of the Long Products division to the Klesch Group by hiring the French industrial consultancy company, Syndex, to report on how productivity at the Long Products division in Scunthorpe could be increased. In July Community engaged Syndex again to do a similar report at the black bar section based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire after Tata had claimed the plant to be unprofitable. Speaking to the media at the time, Stuart Sansome of Community said the French firm had a “good track record” of protecting workers.

There is no suggestion whatsoever of opposition from either the trade unions or the Labour Party.

Alan Coombs, president of Community at the Port Talbot plant, told the BBC the impact on the local community would be “devastating”. Workers at the Port Talbot plant are “obviously worried” about job losses, but have known for several years that the situation was worsening. “It’s been a slippery slope since 2008-09, but we are getting nearer to the edge all the time.”

Stephen Kinnock, the Labour MP for Aberavon, which includes Port Talbot, said job losses would be a “bitter blow” for the area and stressed only that support was needed for the workers made redundant.

Thousands of steel industry jobs were lost during 2015 with cutbacks and the closure of plants in England and Scotland involving Tata and other steel producers. In December it was confirmed that the planned cuts of 720 jobs in South Yorkshire would go ahead, including 350 compulsory redundancies, in spite of the unions previously claiming they wouldn’t accept compulsory redundancies.

Last year, the Redcar steel plant on Teesside, owned by the Thai company SSI, went into liquidation with the loss of 2,200 jobs. Tata Steel also announced nearly 1,200 job losses at its plants in Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire. Caparo Steel Industries, the steel products company that is part of Labour peer Lord Paul’s Caparo Group, filed for administration, putting 1,700 more jobs at risk. Sections of the company based in West Bromwich, Hartlepool, Wednesbury and Oldbury in the Midlands have been taken over by Liberty House Group.

The clamour to blame Chinese imports for the jobs cull in Britain is a smokescreen. China supplies half of the estimated 1.6 billion tons of steel a year. The slowdown in the Chinese economy has created a surplus crisis. The international price of steel has plummeted by an estimated 45 percent over the past year, from £330 a ton ($500) to £280, a 45 percent drop in nearly 12 months. Steel markets around the world are oversupplied relative to current demand. Cheap raw materials contribute to this.

Large profits are made by British companies and the state industries from purchasing imported steel, most of which comes from Europe and not China. Tata Motors based on Merseyside and the Midlands is a sister company of Tata Steel. It recently announced record production levels of its high end vehicles.

The drive for profits, extracting the most out of workers at the cheapest rate, is at the centre of the crisis in steel. Each steel producing country is in a battle with the rest. The extremely low level of wages paid out to Chinese steel workers means the slowdown in Chinese manufacturing has created a large surplus of steel.

The crocodile tears shed by UK politicians, unions and the media regarding “the dumping of cheap steel creating unemployment” has to be gauged against the commercial relationship Britain has with China, which shows how they benefit from the fruits of the super-exploitation imposed by Beijing.

A report by the economic research firm Rhodium Group and the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies, highlighted in the Financial Times in June 2015, states that between the years 2000 and 2014, Chinese companies invested €46 billion in the 28 EU countries, most of which came in the wake of the 2008-09 global financial crisis. Of this figure, the UK received a total of €12.2 billion, making it by far the biggest recipient of Chinese direct investment. Germany was second with €6.9 billion and France third with €5.9 billion.

13.Steelworkers union begins counting ballots in sellout contract at US Steel(2016-2-1)

TPPは中国鋼材の輸入をさらに容易にする。

By Evan Winters
30 January 2016

The United Steelworkers Union (USW) will begin counting mailed-in ballots from 18,000 US Steel (USS) workers on February 1. The contract, about which almost no information has been made public, is another major attack on wages and benefits of steelworkers.

The USW is deliberately working to prevent discussion and keep workers in the dark. It has not released a full or summarized version of the contract to the public. On January 10, the USW mailed workers summaries of the contract changes since 2012, along with their ballots. All voting is to be done by mail to ensure workers are as isolated as possible during the voting process.

The little information available about the contract demonstrates its deeply anti-worker character. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “The proposal keeps wages at the same level [a three-year wage freeze], offers no signing bonus, and proposes changes in health care, eliminating retiree health care benefits for workers hired after January 1. Instead of the coverage, they would get a 50-cent contribution to their 401(k) plan for each hour they worked.” The contract also includes increased health care co-pays for current workers.

The only “gains” the USW can refer to are a profit-sharing arrangement and an agreement by US Steel to restore benefits to any laid-off workers it decides to rehire. Given the massive downturn in the international steel industry, these so-called concessions are essentially worthless.

Through the contract “negotiations,” the USW has revealed itself again as an agent of management, aiming to help US Steel and the steel industry remain profitable by destroying the jobs, wages and benefits of steelworkers.

An agreement at US Steel further isolates the 2,200 steelworkers at Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) workers who have been locked out since for nearly six months and the 450 steelworkers at Sherwin Alumina who have been locked out since October 2014. It also further isolates the 13,500 steelworkers at ArcelorMittal and the 2,500 steelworkers at Cliffs Natural Resources who have been working without a contract since September.

ATI is demanding sweeping concessions on pensions and health care, especially for new hires, and changes in contracting and work rules that essentially reduce the workforce to “on call” laborers. The USW has condemned ATI workers to isolation as a warning to other steelworkers workers of what would happen if they walked out.

The global market for steel, like the market for oil and many other commodities, is in a deep slump. With a slowdown in steel demand in China, by far the world’s largest producer and consumer of steel, global steel prices have fallen by more than 40 percent. China is estimated to produce half of the world’s 1.6 billion metric tons of steel per year. With falling domestic demand, Chinese steel exports have risen to 100 million metric tons per year.

Low prices and weak demand are driving steelmakers the world over to slash jobs and cut production. Over the past two years, UK steelmakers cut more than 4,000 jobs through layoffs and plant closures at Tata Steel, SSI and Sheffield Steel. Today, the UK steel industry employs only 20,000 workers.

Australian steelmaker BlueScope is threatening to close its Port Kembla mill, employing over 4,000 people, in an effort to slash 500 jobs and freeze wages. Bluescope is threatening to entirely shut down operations in New Zealand, ending all steel production in that country. In all of these cases, the unions respond by offering to impose concessions on steelworkers and issuing chauvinist appeals for trade protection.

The USW is no exception. Even before contracts for 30,000 workers at US Steel and ArcelorMittal expired September 1, the USW offered the companies tens of millions of dollars in concessions, asserting that such cuts were necessary to keep the companies competitive. When the industry rebuffed their offers and demanded even greater concessions, the USW ordered workers to keep working, and has continued to do so.

Leading up to the contract expiration, in August US Steel laid off 1,100 workers at its Fairfield Works in Birmingham, Alabama, after firing 756 workers in Lorain, Ohio and Houston, Texas in January 2015.

The USW has worked tirelessly to isolate steelworkers from 140,000 auto workers, 40,000 telecommunications workers and tens of thousands of teachers who were also without a contract. The USW waited for the UAW to ram through concessions contracts in the face of a rebellion of workers at Fiat-Chrysler, GM, and Ford before announcing the agreement with US Steel in December.

The USW aims to prove its worth to steel companies as a second layer of management, repeatedly offering to make concessions on wages, benefits, work rules and contracting in exchange for a secure position as a labor police force, ensuring the uninterrupted exploitation of the workers from which it extracts dues.

Acting as an agent of US manufacturers, the USW endlessly promotes virulently chauvinist campaigns for protectionist trade policy, aimed above all at China. These include anti-dumping lawsuits aimed at preventing steel imports from China, South Korea and other Asian countries, and above all the nationalist campaign against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

The TPP, a US project aimed at cementing US dominance over the Pacific Rim economy, aims to dictate the terms of trade to numerous Pacific countries in exchange for privileged access to the US market. The TPP primarily serves the interests of US banks, acting through their political instrument, the Obama administration. Although China is not included in the TPP, the USW asserts that the deal would open a backdoor for Chinese goods. The USW calls instead for the imposition of trade controls to reduce the flow of imported manufactured goods, in an attempt to prop up prices and market share for domestic manufacturers.

Ultimately, the USW’s support for trade war is in line with the Obama administration’s military buildup and possible war with China. This deeply anti-worker perspective flows from the USW's unconditional defense of capitalism and the nation-state system.

Steelworkers in China are facing the same onslaught on jobs and working conditions as workers in the US, Europe and throughout the globe. This week Chinese authorities announced the cutting of 400,000 steelworker jobs.

The struggle to defend jobs and living standards can only be taking forward by workers uniting internationally against the profit system.

February 4, 2016 — 10:22 PM JST Updated on February 4, 2016 —

インド最大の手港メーカー、タタ製鉄は2015/10-12期に213億ルピー(3億1500万ドル）の赤字となった。世界的な鉄鋼不況と中国の安値輸出による影響である。イギリスでも大きな赤字を出した。2014/10-12期は15.7億ﾙﾋﾟｰ(2,300万ドル）の黒字であった。JSWも大幅赤字となた。

日本の大手鉄鋼メーカーは減益ながらも利益を確保している。

EUは中国からの輸入鋼材に対して13％の関税を課すことを決定した。

Tata Steel Ltd., India’s biggest producer, posted a third-quarter loss as rising imports of the alloy pressured prices and a global glut hurt its European operations.

Tata’s net loss was 21.3 billion rupees ($315 million) in the three months through December, compared with a profit of 1.57 billion rupees a year earlier, the Mumbai-based company said on Thursday. Sales, over two-thirds of which came from outside India last fiscal year, fell 17 percent to 278.2 billion rupees, short of the 283.4 billion-rupee average estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

Economic slowdown in China, the biggest producer and consumer of metals, is pummeling the global steel industry as it exports its surplus in the face of faltering domestic demand. Last week, India’s No. 3 mill JSW Steel Ltd. swung to a record quarterly loss, while Japan’s three biggest producers have all cut full-year profit forecasts due to deteriorating markets.

Steel exports from countries such as China, Russia, South Korea and Japan have surged to all-time highs on the back of lack-luster domestic demand, excess capacity and competitive currencies, Tata Steel said in a statement. “These unfairly priced imports are distorting the demand-supply balance in many regions, depressing domestic prices and undermining the profitability of many large steel producers,” it said.

The loss included an exceptional item of 7.12 billion rupees on account of non-cash writedown of fixed assets and restructuring linked to its European operations and an employee separation plan in India, the company said. The analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had estimated a loss between 6.8 billion rupees and 17.1 billion rupees.

Although imports moderated in the last couple of months of 2015, India is contemplating a further tightening of controls to protect domestic firms. Last month, the European Union imposed tariffs as high as 13 percent on steel from China.

The U.K.’s regulatory costs and strong pound led to announcements to reduce jobs and mothballing of assets, the company said. "Regulatory action on a European and national level is needed to enable the business to compete fairly."

"China is dumping steel everywhere around the world," Rahul Dholam, an analyst at Angel Broking Ltd., said before the earnings. "India can at least compete with them because it is a low-cost producer, but that is not the case with the long steel business in Europe. The salaries and pensions the company has to pay are too high."

Tata Steel, in a bid to reduce debt by selling loss-making units, is in the final stages of discussion with Greybull Capital LLP to sell operations in the U.K. and France. The company last month announced 1,050 job cuts in the U.K.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization at its Indian business fell 23 percent, while Ebitda at its European operations reported a loss of 6.75 billion rupees compared to a profit of 13.1 billion rupees a year earlier.

Tata’s shares closed 0.9 percent higher at 225.95 rupees in Mumbai before the earnings were announced. The stock has slumped 13 percent this year, after losing more than a third of its value in 2015 for its biggest decline in four years.

アルセロール・ミッタルは30億ドルの増資を株主に要請。目的は不況下の資金繰り対策である。2015年の赤字は79.5億ドル（約9,500億円）に達する見込みである。

ArcelorMittal plans to raise $3 billion from investors and sell a $1 billion stake in Spanish auto-parts maker Gestamp as the world’s largest steelmaker looks to ride out an industry slump caused by record Chinese exports.

Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, the chief executive officer who owns about 37 percent of the business, has committed to maintain his stake and his family will take up about $1.1 billion, the Luxembourg-based company said in a statement Friday. Full-year earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization declined 28 percent to $5.2 billion.

“These are steps in the right direction, but ArcelorMittalis running out of levers to pull,” Seth Rosenfeld, an analyst at Jefferies LLC in London who has a sell rating on the stock, wrote in a report. The company’s assumption of “continued spot margins may indeed be generous given a potential sustained deterioration of global steel market conditions.”

Shares of ArcelorMittal, which supplied steel for New York’s One World Trade Center and London’s Wembley stadium, have dropped 60 percent in the last 12 months. They’ve been hit by declining prices for steel as China pushes the material onto the world market at record levels to counter its slowing economy.

The stock fell as much as 11 percent, the biggest intraday drop since Dec. 2, and closed 5.5 percent lower at 3.484 euros in Amsterdam.

The cost of insuring 10 million euros ($11 million) of ArcelorMittal’s debt for five years sank to 1.28 million euros in advance from 1.65 million euros, according to S&P Capital IQ’s CMA. That’s in addition to 500,000 euros annually and signals a 52 percent chance of default.

“This capital raise, combined with the sale of our minority shareholding in Gestamp, will accelerate the company’s debt-reduction plan,” Mittal said in the statement. “This will help ensure that the business is resilient in any market environment and puts ArcelorMittal in a position of strength from which to further improve performance.”

Bloomberg News reported Thursday that the company was planning to raise capital, citing people familiar with the situation. Goldman Sachs International, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank are joint global coordinators for the share sale and will underwrite the portion not taken up by the Mittal family, subject to conditions. The share sale, which should be completed in the first half, will cut debt to less than $12 billion. Lazard Ltd. advised Gestamp on the deal.

“2015 was a very difficult year for the steel and mining industries,” Mittal said in a separate statement. “Although demand in our core markets remained strong, prices deteriorated significantly during the year as a result of excess capacity in China.”

The company has scrapped its dividend, cut expansion plans and shuttered plants as it seeks to pay down debt. It reported net debt of $15.7 billion. Full-year sales declined 19 percent to $31.9 billion. Ebitda will drop to “in excess of” $4.5 billion in 2016, it said.

ArcelorMittal, whose full-year net loss swelled to $7.95 billion after taking $4.8 billion in writedowns, said it would continue to cut costs. The company said it would trim capital spending by $300 million to about $2.4 billion this year and reduce interest payments by $200 million. It also unveiled a plan to make more than $85 profit per ton of steel produced and eventually deliver $2 billion of free cash flow a year.

ArcelorMittal twice reduced its profit forecast last year as China’s exports undercut steel prices in Europe and the U.S., its biggest markets. Exports from China rose by a fifth to a record 112 million metric tons in 2015. European hot-rolled coil, a benchmark for steel prices, sank in November to its lowest since at least 2007, down 75 percent from its peak. U.S. prices slid 40 percent in 2015 to a decade low.

16.Italian steel work faces closure or sell-off(2016-2-8)

By Marianne Arens
8 February 2016

イタリーのIlvaが経営危機に瀕し、2016年６月までに、買い手を探すかさがすか、工場閉鎖に追い込まれている。従業員数は12,000名である。１９９６年にItalsiderからRiva一族に売却された。ヨーロッパでは３番目の規模の製鉄会社である。

同社は過去２年間政府の監督下に置かれていた。工場は主力がタラントTarantoにあり、もう一つはNovi Ligure にある。

２０１５年には既に２０００人が一時解雇されている。Ilvaは過去に20億ユーロの救済資金を得ている。それがどう使われたかが問題になっている。

The Italian government is seeking a buyer for the steel corporation Ilva and its largest factory in Taranto (Apulia). The steel giant needs a new owner by the end of June 2016. Potential buyers have until February 10 to express their interest, Industry Minister Federica Guidi said on January 4.

With 12,000 employees, Ilva is the third largest steel corporation in Europe. Another 8,000 workers are employed by subcontractors. The 110-year-old operation, which used to belong to the state corporation Italsider, was sold to the Riva Corporation in 1995.

Ilva has been under forced administration by the government for two years. Legal proceedings against the Riva family, which owns the corporation, are currently under way due to tax evasion as well as environmental contamination which has caused hundreds of deaths. Assets amounting to 1.2 billion euros, which Riva deposited in Swiss accounts, were originally set aside for the renovation of the factory and the elimination of the worst environmental damage in Taranto but were not released by the Swiss banks and authorities.

Workers at the factories in Taranto (Apulia), Cornigliano (Genoa), and Novi Ligure face closings, layoffs and massive wage cuts. Ilva State commissioners reported on January 11 that over 3,500 employees will be laid off “temporarily.” The measures affect 1,713 workers in the strip mills and pipe mills, 831 workers in the furnaces, and 975 workers in management, repairs and maintenance.

Last year, on average 2,000 workers were temporarily released from work. These short-term steel workers received, for many years, up to 80 percent of their wages financed through the national Cassa Integrazione. Since 2005, a factory “solidarity contract” has provided a certain guarantee of jobs and income. However, starting in January 2016, the so-called Jobs Act, Matteo Renzi’s government labour law reform, made the special operational guarantees obsolete. Short-time workers face massive wage cuts of 20 percent and, longer term, the complete cessation of their earnings.

The planned sale will make the rehiring of “temporarily” laid off workers highly unlikely. Worldwide, there is an oversupply of steel, prices are falling and the competition is fierce. Possible interested buyers such as AcelorMittal, JSW Steel or Marcegaglia might rapidly lay off more workers or close additional plants.

The steel workers are under pressure from all sides, and the situation will inevitably lead to explosive class conflicts.

City hall occupation in Genoa

A protest by steel workers from Cornigliano at the beginning of the year is an anticipation of coming class struggles.

On Monday morning, January 11, 2016, 500 steel workers occupied the city hall in Genoa and demanded a guarantee of their “solidarity contract” for which they had made great sacrifices when the blast furnaces and the hot rolling mill were shut down. Since then, a cold rolling plant and two zinc coating shops are in operation in Cornigliano and 1,600 steel workers are still employed there.

A demonstration was originally supposed to lead to a prefecture but was diverted to the feudal Palazzo Tursi, the seat of the city government, at the last moment. The workers pushed on the door of the council hall with their shoulders and tried to occupy it. They repeated chants against Premier Matteo Renzi (Democratic Party/PD), and Genovese Mayor Marco Doria prevented the local secretary of the Democratic Party, Alessandro Terrile, from fleeing. Shortly before this, at a regional party gathering, Terrile had called for the removal of the special guarantees of the Ilva steel workers: “We cannot allow ourselves to increase payments for the Ilva workers,” he had insisted.

Afterwards, the combined efforts of a union secretary and Fiamma Spena, the prefect of Genoa, succeeded in convincing them to end the occupation.

The unions demanded a national round table, to which the Renzi government and the steel union would have to be invited. Maurizio Landini, head of the largest metal union, FIOM, told the press: “we demand that the government gather together unions and workers in order to discuss the future of the entire steel sector.”

The next day, Mayor Doria said that the actions of the workers had initially left him speechless. He vehemently condemned the occupation as an “attack on the democratic institution of the community of Genoa.” Marco Doria, a former member of the Communist Party (PCI), is close to Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party. He is a descendant of the Genovese noblewoman Andrea Doria, the former owner of the magnificent town hall, which the workers had so disdainfully occupied.

Doria said with regard to the steel company Ilva that it was “in a comatose condition.” The fall of the steel corporation had previously “only been prevented with the combined forces of the national community.” Doria claimed that the head of the government, Renzi, would ensure that when Ilva was sold, “the protection of today’s jobs” would be ensured “by the introduction of a social clause.”

The myth of the Riva rescue

Doria is not the only one who is spreading the myth of an Ilva rescue by the “national community” and trying to make the state takeover sound positive. The British Labour “left winger” Jeremy Corbyn had claimed that in the matter of Ilva, one had to learn from the Renzi government. “The Italian government could have easily taught [the British] that one can intervene, either temporarily or permanently, and that there are numerous ways to rescue economic infrastructure … ”

There are as many lies as words in this statement. The Renzi government and its predecessors have rescued neither “economic infrastructure” nor jobs and certainly not the health of the workers. There is a reason why the laws, which provide legitimacy for the billion-euro tax gifts for the Ilva Corporation, are called “Riva rescue.” The government is acting in the interests of the Italian bourgeoisie and is imposing the costs on the working class.

Another striking example of the same phenomenon took place when Renzi named steel engineer Marco Pucci as the transitional general director of Ilva. Pucci was sentenced to six and a half years in prison in May 2015 because of his responsibility for the terrible accident at ThyssenKrupp eight years ago.

On December 6, 2007, seven workers were burned alive when an explosion caused a terrible fire in the ThyssenKrupp plant in Turin. The catastrophe could have been prevented through simple safety precautions, but nothing more was invested in the plant because it was slated for closure. Marco Pucci was, at that time, one of the responsible managers.

For more than eight years, the proceedings have been delayed by one or another authority. Pucci remains free to this day and is awaiting another appeal judgment. Until a short time ago, he led the ThyssenKrupp plant AST in Terni. The relatives of the dead steel workers protested against his appointment as Ilva general director and shortly thereafter Pucci resigned his post.

Workplace accidents

This case highlights the attitude of the government to the life and health of the steel workers. In the two years in which Ilva has been under state oversight, the government has not lifted a finger to solve the environmental problems or to improve plant safety. Quite the opposite: scarcely at any time in the past have there been so many workplace accidents.

Angelo Iodice (54), steel worker and security officer, died on September 4, 2014, when a transport carriage came loose from its anchoring and rolled over him. Alessandro Morricella (35) was smothered with glowing cast steel during a routine check of a furnace. He died after four days in a coma. Only a few days afterwards, a temporary worker was scalded by hot steam.

On November 17, 2015, Cosimo Martucci (48), a temp agency worker, died after being hit by a steel pipe that had fallen from the hook of a long haul truck. Only hours later, there was another accident in a continuous casting hall in which, luckily, no workers were hurt.

A similar accident, which recalls the accident at ThyssenKrupp in 2007, took place only a week before. On January 14, 2016, there was an explosion in the continuous casting plant, which led to an emission of 20 tons of fluid steel. Surprisingly, no one was hurt.

A worker reported: “First we heard a roar and then saw flames coming out of the 1,600 degree steel until it was about three meters away from us. A co-worker fell while we were running away.”

The security guard who sent the shocked workers to a sick station, reported that tears were running down their faces. “It is impossible to imagine what would happen if the explosion had taken place on the other side of the hall where the workers were standing,” he said. He blamed the corporation, which had not carried out any security measures and had drawn no conclusions from a related incident on November 18, when an almost identical accident took place in the same department.

This same inhumane attitude is also evident in the treatment of steel workers, their families and the entire city of Taranto. The Ilva steel plant has been allowed to perpetrate an environmental catastrophe of the first order there without any opposition.

When the EU Competition Commissioner initiated an investigation of the Italian government on January 20, because it had bailed out the steel company Ilva with two billion euros, Minister Guidi answered that the main reason this money was paid was to deal with the “environmental emergency.” But the residents of Taranto have not seen any change: streets, squares, cars, gardens, school yards and kindergartens are still covered with red dust. The emissions from the factory are responsible for at least 400 premature deaths.

An unemployment level of over 20 percent in the region forces the steel workers to continue with clenched teeth. An Ilva steel worker summed up the dilemma faced by the workers: “Either you die from cancer here or your family must go hungry.”

17.アルセロール・ミッタルの大ピンチ（2016-2-9）

ArcelorMittalは世界中のオンボロ製鉄所を買いあさって買う題し、遂に名目では世界一の鉄鋼会社にのし上がった。前身はインドネシアのスクラップ業者である。０７年にはAMが新唐書一徹を買収するかもしれないなどというヨタ番組をNHKがBSで流した。本ページでもNo.4辺りをご覧頂けば当時のばか騒ぎのようすぅが窺える。

AMは自社で蓄積した技術は何もなく、もっぱらダモン[低級功罪」を売りまくっていた。したがって、同じくダモノを世界市場にダンピング輸出している中国とはもろにぶつかり合い、２０１５年には９０００億円も尾赤字を出した。2016年も事態は更に悪化するのでAMにとっては由々しき事態である。ヨーロッパの製鉄所は次々閉鎖の運命が待ている。

中国はダンピング輸出を止めるような気配はない。1～1.5億トンの能力削減を３年でやると云っていたが、いつの間にか「5年でやる」というように緩和方針が打ち出されている。2016年は世界鉄鋼業界が大混乱に陥ることは間違いない。

18.Job losses mount in US steel and aluminum industries(2016-2-10)

USスチールはLone Star Tubular の閉鎖を決め677名のレイ・オフを決めた。これは石油掘削の低調を反映したものである。USスチールの2015年4Qの赤字は10億ドル（1150億円）であった。2015年通期の赤字は15億ドルであった。Gary, Indiana harbor,Fairfield, Alabama, Granite City in Illinoisの高炉を閉鎖した。Granite City in Illinoisでは2,000人がレイ・オフされた。

かつての世界一の威容を誇ったが、今は見る影もなく衰退してしまった。

AK Steel、 Ashland, Kentucky worksでも600人の従業員が解雇され現在200名を残すのみとなった。

Republic Steel も圧延工場の200名ヲレイ・オフした。ここでは自動車部品用の特殊鋼を生産している。

Shenango Inc. Pittsburghはコークス工場を閉鎖し、173名をレイ・オフした。

Arcelormittalは2015年に約80億ドルの赤字を計上した。2014年に比べ売上高は約20％減少した。同社の株価は2015年は50％も下落した。

アルミのAlcoa社も数千人の解雇者を出すとみられている。2014年には株価は50％下がった。

By Samuel Davidson
8 February 2016

One month into the new year and job losses continue to mount in the US steel and aluminum industry as manufacturers post record losses amid a massive fall in prices and continuing slump in domestic and world demand.

Last month, US Steel, the nation's largest steel producer, announced that it is laying off 677 workers from its Lone Star Tubular Operations in Texas, as it plans to idle the mill in March. The plant was idled last year but returned to production for a short while. The company has not stated if or when the plant will be brought back online.

In a statement, US Steel said the layoffs were due to the downturn in the oil drilling industry. Oil prices are down to $27 a barrel, a drop of over 70 percent from just 2 years ago.

Last month US Steel reported fourth quarter losses of $1 billion, bringing its total losses to over $1.5 billion for the year. Last year the steel maker cut back operations at 8 plants, including idling blast furnaces in Gary, Indiana, Fairfield, Alabama and Granite City, Illinois.

US Steel began laying off 2,000 steelworkers at its Granite Works in Illinois the day after Christmas and it has not said when or even if the workers will be called back.

Also in December, AK Steel began layoffs of 600 steelworkers at its Ashland, Kentucky works. Fewer than 200 workers remain at the mill and their future is uncertain.

In January, Republic Steel laid off 200 steelworkers at its rolling mill in northeast Ohio. In a statement, the company blames the action on the drop in demand from the energy sector. The company also produces specialty steel for the automotive industry.

Also last month, Shenango Inc. closed its coke plant near Pittsburgh, causing 173 workers to lose their jobs. The plant, owned by Michigan-based DTE Energy, said it was closing the plant because of the fall in demand from the steel industry.

This trend will only continue as Arcelormittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, reported Friday that it lost $8 billion last year, as sales dropped nearly 20 percent over 2014. The company was forced to write down over $4 billion in assets as the value of its iron ore and other holdings have also collapsed. Arcelormittal is the second largest steel producer in the United States.

The company’s stock value has fallen more than 50 percent during the past year and took another five percent drop on Friday after the announcement was made. Billionaire chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal, whose family owns nearly 40 percent of the company, said that “throughout the year we have rigorously focused on implementing a series of measures aimed at reducing costs and ensuring the business is adapted for these tough market conditions.”

Last fall, aluminum and parts manufacturer Alcoa announced that it was splitting into two companies and cutting thousands of jobs. The company has been hit hard by falling prices and demand for aluminum. Since December, 2014 Alcoa stock has fallen by more than 50 percent, from over $17 to under $8 today.

The company plans to split its still profitable parts manufacturing, which makes parts for autos and airplanes, from its core aluminum manufacturing business, which has been experiencing massive losses.

Last month, Alcoa announced the layoff of 600 workers at its southwestern Indiana mill along the Ohio River, as it prepares to close its smelter by the end of March. Another 1,200 workers work at the site’s power plant and rolling mill, but how long those jobs will remain is unclear.

Alcoa is also laying off 900 workers at two of its smelters in Washington State, near Seattle. Late last year, the company gave layoff warnings to 465 workers at its Ferndale facility and 415 workers at its smelter in Wenatchee.

The US benchmark for hot rolled steel continues to fall, as demand for the steel from China drops as its economy slows and the much promised economic recovery fails to materialize. In the past year the benchmark price has fallen by 50 percent and it is down 75 percent from its 2007 high before the economic meltdown.

The United Steelworkers, which represents most of the steelworkers who have lost and are losing their jobs, has pledged to work with the steel companies to return them to profitability at the expense of jobs and living standards of its members.

The USW is currently isolating 2,200 steelworkers locked out of their jobs by ATI for nearly six months, and another 450 steelworkers locked out by Sherwin Alumina for over 16 months.

The union recently signed a new three-year contract with US Steel that froze wages and cut the medical benefits of current workers while doing nothing for the thousands of workers who have lost their jobs.

The USW is currently negotiating a contract for its 13,500 members at Arcelormittal. The old contract expired last September. The USW has offered millions of dollars in concessions, but the company is demanding even more.

In place of the defense of workers’ jobs and living standards, the USW, which represents a privileged layer of bureaucrats, is promoting a reactionary campaign of nationalism and chauvinism. It seeks to place the blame for the crisis in steel on Chinese steelworkers, who themselves are facing layoffs and job cuts. In this way the union attempts to divert attention from the real cause of the crisis while lining up the sons and daughters of workers to be used as cannon fodder as the Obama administration pushes for war with China.

Steelworkers in China, the US, Japan, India and everywhere in the globe are facing the same problems, brought about not by the workers of other countries, but by the fundamental contradictions of the capitalist system.

In place of nationalism, chauvinism and war, workers need an international socialist policy which unites the workers of the world in a common struggle to defend jobs and living standards.

19.Thousands to Protest in Brussels Against China Steel Trading（2016-2-14）

Calls to stop European Union granting market-economy status to world’s largest steel producer

ついにEUの鉄鋼労働者が中国との「自由貿易」を拝し城杜祐要求を掲げて、2月15日(月）にブラッセルで大規模のデモを展開することとなった。EUの手工業会はアルセロール・ミッタルが2015年には1兆円近い赤字を出すなど危機的状況にある。EUはなぜか中国との自由貿易に固執しており、鉄鋼労働者にそのしわ寄せがきている。

AWSJ; 2016-2-14

BRUSSELS—Representatives from Europe’s struggling steel industry will take to the streets of Brussels on Monday in an attempt to stop the European Union from granting market-economy status to China later this year, a move that would make it harder for European companies to protect themselves from cheap Chinese exports.

The protest by workers and employers follows a stark warning from some of the EU’s largest governments that the bloc’s steel sector faces a significant and impending risk of collapse. It is also likely to fuel a debate over Europe’s response to claims that China is selling steel at below-market prices at a time when the steel industry world-wide is reeling from overcapacity.

The dissent underscores the opposition the 28-country bloc could face in formally designating China as a market economy, a move that will fundamentally change its relationship with its second-largest trading partner.

Related Reading

EU Opens Three Investigations on China Steel Imports
Glut of Chinese Steel Looms Large (Aug. 25, 2015)
U.S. Steelmakers Seek Antidumping Action Against China, Four Others (June 3, 2015)
China Defends Its Steel Exports (May 15, 2015)

If the EU recognizes China as a market economy, it would make it more difficult for Europe to impose tariffs on Chinese goods.

Beijing claims that a 2001 agreement allowing it to join the World Trade Organization means it should receive market-economy status by December 2016.

However, European industries say Beijing uses government subsidies to boost exports and undercut overseas competition. They say China’s economy is still controlled by the state and governments must take that into consideration when weighing up whether or not to award it market status.

“If China were to be granted market economy status by the EU, this would further undermine the effectiveness of the EU’s trade-defense instruments,” Axel Eggert, Director General of European steel association Eurofer, which is helping to organize the march, said Friday.

Monday’s protest comes as Europe’s steel industry suffers from overcapacity that has led to thousands of job losses in recent months.

Steel imports from China, the world’s largest steel producer, to the EU have more than doubled over the past two years while the bloc’s demand languishes below levels seen before the 2008 financial crisis. EU steel prices have fallen roughly 40% over the past two years.

“In Europe we have a massive import crisis that has been caused by the Chinese. That’s why the EU should be using its trade-protection instruments against the dumped Chinese steel imports in a way that has the quickest impact,” said Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, the president of the German steel association. The association expects some 1,500 German steelworkers to participate in Monday’s protest.

The organizers expect around 5,000 people from 17 countries to attend Monday’s march.

‘The EU should be using its trade-protection instruments against the dumped Chinese steel imports in a way that has the quickest impact.’

—Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, president of the German steel association

In a sign of growing concern about the steel sector, earlier this month ministers from seven EU governments, including France, Germany and the U.K., sent a letter to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, urging it to step up its action to protect the region’s industry from unfair trade.

“The European Commission is very aware of the situation of the steel sector,” said Lucia Caudet, the commission’s spokeswoman for industry, but added that industry’s challenges go beyond trade issues. “What we see is a complete change in the industrial landscape, driven by digitization and the need for energy efficiency.” Ms. Caudet said the commission is applying the instruments at its disposal to ensure a level-playing field.

In recent weeks, the bloc has taken more measures to protect steelmakers from unfair trade, opening three investigations into allegations of unfair trade practices by Chinese manufacturers and slapping tariffs on two types of steel imports from China.

The EU has 37 trade defense measures in place on imports of steel products—16 of which concern China directly.

In the U.S., Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker told The Wall Street Journal last month that her department is weighing more antidumping cases than at any time in 15 years. She said two-thirds were steel cases “a vast majority of which involve China.”

On the issue of market economy, the commission is looking at three options: granting China the coveted status; not granting it and keeping anti-dumping measures in place; or pursuing a third way—that would designate China a market economy while introducing some mitigating measures.

Officials say the commission prefers the third option, but industries warn that mitigating measures will do little to offset the resulting economic damage that would affect manufacturing sectors.

A study for the commission estimates that if China is treated as a market economy, the long-term job losses in the EU, without mitigating measures, would range between 63,600 and 211,000. A study for Aegis Europe, a group of some 30 European industries, puts the figure at as many as 1.7 to 3.5 million at-risk EU jobs.

Still, supporters say granting China market economy status could open the door for Beijing to inject more money into Europe’s stagnant economy, a move that would boost infrastructure investment and jobs.

Any proposal to designate China a market economy must also be approved by the European Parliament and EU governments, which are divided on the benefits of trade with Beijing. Nations from Europe’s south, such as Italy, support a tougher stance while the others such as the U.K. and Nordic countries are more likely to support the proposal.

For now the commission says it is assessing the economic consequences before taking a view, and will officially revisit the issue in the summer.

ベルギーの首都ブラッセルではドイツのIG Metal労組を始め17か国から５千人の労働者が集合し、中国との「貿易戦争」の回賜をアピールした。中国のダンピング輸出画続けば多くの工場閉鎖と大量解雇が予想されるだけに切羽詰った動きがみられる。

The Belgian capital of Brussels witnessed a disgusting spectacle last Monday. The European steel trade unions, above all Germany’s IG Metall, mobilised their foot soldiers and joined with major European industrial companies to demand sharper trade war measures against China and Russia.

Close to 5,000 demonstrators from 17 countries, mainly Germany, were transported to the headquarters of the European Union (EU) Commission in the Belgian capital. Joining hands with AEGIS Europe, an association representing 30 industrial associations across the continent, the trade union functionaries called for a halt to the importing of cheap steel from China. “Stop the China dumping”, was emblazoned on one trade union banner.

One hundred years after the “Burgfrieden”, a pact concluded with employers’ organisations at the onset of the First World War in which the German unions abandoned the right to strike and conduct social struggles so as to support the Kaiser’s war policy, and 83 years after the subordination of the German trade union leadership to the Nazi regime, Germany’s trade unions are again drawing on this reactionary tradition.

Together with the European steel industry, the trade unions are accusing China of sending large quantities of state-subsidised steel to Europe. They are demanding steep fines and other measures to prevent this.

In addition, the trade unions and concerns called at their joint Brussels rally for the withdrawal of planned restrictions of emissions trading, because they would weaken the competitiveness of European companies, and not to extend market economy status (MES) to China, because it would be more difficult to impose trade war measures like customs duties.

After the demonstration, European industrial leaders handed EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker a “European industrial manifesto for free and fair trade”. It states, “We, the workers, trade unions and employers of European industry, call upon the European Parliament, member states and the Commission to say yes to jobs and fair trade and no to market economy status for China!”

The Brussels demonstration was the high point to date of the campaign by the trade unions and industrial concerns in support of stricter trade war measures against their competitors in China and Russia. A leading role in the campaign is being played by IG Metall. The union sent 1,500 workers alone from German steel plants, including nearly 600 from Duisburg—350 apprentices from Thyssen-Krupp, 150 from Hüttenwerke Krupp-Mannesmann and almost 90 workers from ArcelorMittal.

IG Metall organised demonstrations at German steel plants in January, where it protested against the planned changes to emissions trading and “cheap steel” from China and Russia. IG Metall and the steel association agreed last month to a joint statement on the emissions trading system and some corresponding demands.

The steel concerns currently confront overproduction on the world market, resulting in a sustained drop in steel prices. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, the world economy survived to a considerable extent on trade with the Chinese state. But its double-digit growth rates are now a thing of the past. In January, exports declined by around 11 percent in comparison to a year earlier, and imports declined by almost 19 percent.

In a statement released by the foreign trade ministry, China described the overproduction in the steel market as a “joint challenge for the whole world.” It had already “introduced measures to eliminate overcapacity,” the statement from Beijing declared.

Cuts of up to 150 million tons in production over the coming five years are planned. This could cost 400,000 jobs in the steel industry alone (without including companies indirectly impacted), state news agency Xinhua reported. Nonetheless, European industrial representatives were dissatisfied that the planned cuts were far below China’s overcapacity of 300 million tons.

In other words, the European corporations are demanding close to 1 million job cuts in China in order to retain their profits. The EU Commission is to serve as an instrument in this trade war.

The fact that IG Metall and its allies are supporting this campaign proves the reactionary character of their nationalist politics of defending existing production locations. They divide steelworkers, making it easier for the concerns to impose their attacks in Germany and Europe, as well as in China.

In the last six months alone, around 7,000 jobs have been eliminated in European steel plants. Since 2008, 85,000 steel industry jobs have been wiped out across the EU. The next round is now taking place. Mass job cuts are on the order of the day.

The coalition between the trade unions and steel companies is aimed precisely at preparing and imposing such cuts. The trade unions will implement the layoffs themselves. They already have positions on the boards of companies with their labour directors—as human resources chiefs are called in the steel industry.

On Monday, Dr. Nicola Hersch, labour director at ArcelorMittal in Duisburg and previously head of economic, labour market and media policy at the German Confederation of Trade Unions in North Rhine-Westphalia, was not the only top bureaucrat marching. Also present was the labour director at HKM Peter Gasse. Gasse, a Social Democrat who led the IG Metall NRW region until 2004, expressed the hope that EU parliamentary deputies would “think again about China’s dumping prices.”

Gasse was accompanied by HKM central works council chair Ulrich Kimpel. As in the past, the works councils at the steel plants will take on the task of enforcing the assault on jobs against the opposition of the workforce.

In line with previous campaigns, IG Metall’s national campaign is directly bound up with the growing war preparations against Russia and China.

Ever since leading representatives of the German government announced the end of German military restraint two years ago at the Munich Security Conference, the German government has significantly expanded its global interventions in pursuit of its economic and geostrategic interests. In Syrian airspace, Tornado planes from the German air force and Russian jets are flying dangerously close. Even an oversight or misunderstanding could provoke a third world war, according to the estimations of all participants.

Under these conditions, the European steel trade unions—led above all by IG Metall, the world’s largest single-industry trade union—are giving their full backing to the European industrial concerns’ campaign. The trade unions, just like their corporate colleagues, fear the urgently needed unity of European workers with their colleagues in Russia and China against poverty, job cuts and war. This is why they are mobilising support for their national corporations and governments in trade war and military conflict with Russia and China.

It is high time that workers liberate themselves organisationally and programmatically from these reactionary organisations and send them where they belong: the dustbin of history. We call on all steelworkers to prepare for the inevitable confrontation with the corporations, IG Metall and the works councils by making contact with the World Socialist Web Site.

By Rafael Azul
10 March 2016

3月5日(土）、メキシコのアルセローロ・ミッタル社のラザロ・カルディナス製鉄所でコークス工場の300人のレイオフに反対して3,500人の労働組合員がストを開始した。AM社はストは違法だとの声明を発表し、第3者（政府）を交えて公称に入っているが、AMとしては在米の13,000人の労働者についても2015年9月から労働協約を改定できないまま操業を続けており、全米鉄鋼労組（USW)と交渉を続けている。中国からのダンピング輸出があり、鋼材価格の値下がりでAM社の経営も苦境に立たされている。米国商務省は先に中国からの冷延鋼板については266％のダンピング課税をかけている。

On Saturday March 5, more than 3,500 workers at the ArcelorMittal (AM) steel plant in the port city of Lázaro Cárdenas in Michoacán, México went on strike against the world’s largest steelmaker. The workers rallied at the Miners Monument, marched to the plant, and set up a picket line to protest summary dismissals and other violations of their contract. There are also reports that workers are engaged in a plant occupation.

Last year 300 workers were laid off from the coke facility at the plant. The strikers are demanding their rehiring and the reopening of the sheet steel facility, where over one thousand workers were sacked in 2014.

ArcelorMittal management released a statement declaring the walkout illegal and calling for three-party talks between management, the union and the administration of President Peña Nieto. The workers are members of the National Miners, Metal and Steel workers Union (SNTMMSRM). The Labor Ministry (STPS) issued a statement, saying, “With respect to the occupation of the AM Mill, the STPS calls on the National Miners, Metal and Steelworkers Union (SNTMMSRM) to take the road of negotiations and respect for the law.”

The STPS has a history of intervening on the side of big business to make strikes illegal, or “inexistent,” in the language of Mexican legislation. It has happened repeatedly, both under National Action Party governments (PAN) as well as under PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) administrations. In some cases dubious interpretations of Mexican law have been rubberstamped by the Labor Ministry to justify mass layoffs and other attacks on Mexican miners.

AM and a Mexican firm, the Villacero Group, benefited from the 1991 privatization of the state-owned Sicarsa steel mill, at fire sale prices. The government of president Raúl Salinas justified the give away price (USD 170 million, a fraction of its yearly revenues) declaring that the firm required an investment of USD 2 billion to modernize. Far from modernizing the mill, the new owners allowed it to continue to deteriorate.

In 2006, AM absorbed Villacero’s half, following the events of jueves negro (Black Thursday). On April 20, 800 federal police officers violently invaded the plant to expel 500 workers who had been occupying it for nearly three weeks. They killed two workers and wounded 41.

Last March, AM threatened to close the mill and lay off thousands of workers. At the time, the SNTMMSRM bureaucracy argued against a strike claiming they could keep the layoffs to a minimum. SNTMMSRM again stood in the way of the strike last July insisting that it was necessary to aid management as it faced critical competition in the Mexican market from Chinese steel. The union sided with the company’s economic nationalism, claiming China was dumping steel products at below market prices.

The Lázaro Cárdenas mill, the largest in Mexico, employs 7,000 workers. ArcelorMittal, a Luxemburg-based transnational corporation headed by Indian billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, operates in 27 countries and has a work force of 320,000.

In parallel with the negotiations with ArcelorMittal México, the company is also negotiating with the United Steelworkers union (USW) in the US, which has forced 13,000 AM workers in the US to work without a contract since last September. The USW has offered massive concessions to the steelmaker, in line with the sellout agreements it has imposed on workers at US Steel and specialty steelmaker Allegheny Technologies (ATI). At the same time, the USW has pledged to strengthen its “partnership” with US Steel and AM by pushing a virulently nationalist campaign for tariffs against steel from China, Russia, Japan, Brazil and other countries (See: US steelworker union hails Obama trade war measures).

22. Tataがイギリスから全面撤退（2016-3-30）

BBCの報道によればタタ・スチールのポート・タルボー（Port Yarbot)製鉄所は1日100万ポンド赤字が出ており、近く全面撤退する方針を固めたという。
その背景は中国によるダンピング輸出で業績が長期にわたり低迷しているためである。

中国は膨大な過剰生産能力を抱え、そのはけ口を海外へのダンピング輸出に求めている。中国も2016年1－2月は前年同期比-5％とほど生産を減らしたというが、まだまだ過剰生産である。国内で能力削減が遅々として進まず、その分を海外に被害を及ぼしている。

イギリスの新聞、Gardianは次のように報じている。工場を閉鎖してしまうわけにはいかないので、政府が一時期株式を所有に、次の買い手を探すという趣旨である。買い手の中には中国もありうる。ただし、キャメロン首相は「再国有化」はありえないとしている。

Tata Steel, part of the Indian Tata conglomerate, announced late on Tuesday night that its board had rejected a turnaround plan for Port Talbot. Instead, it decided to sell the UK business, which includes the remnants of British Steel.

Union leaders travelled to Mumbai to discuss the company’s UK business, hoping that Tata would agree to a turnaround plan to keep steelmaking in Port Talbot and at other UK plants. The decision to sell will affect other Tata plants, including Rotherham, Corby and Shotton. It is in the process of selling its business in Scunthorpe to investment company Greybull Capital.

Kinnock also travelled to Mumbai to make the case for Tata remaining in the UK. He said the company was not to blame and had invested large sums of money in an effort to keep the business going. Instead, Kinnock pointed the finger at the British government, which he accused of being a “ringleader” in seeking to prevent the European commission from being given powers to stop China dumping cheap steel.

“We are rolling out the red carpet for Beijing,” Kinnock said, arguing that Britain was pushing for China to get market economy status at the World Trade Organization, despite the fact that 80% of its steel industry is state owned. “They are in hock to China. Our commercial policy, our approach to trade and manufacturing, and our overall industrial strategy, is being dictated by Beijing.”

The UK played host to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in October, when Tata announced the mothballing of plants in Scunthorpe, and Dalzell and Clydebridge in Scotland. Unions and Labour MPs accused the prime minister, David Cameron, and the business secretary, Sajid Javid, of failing to challenge Xi over alleged illegal dumping of Chinese steel in Europe.

Tataのイギリス内の鉄鋼企業は150億ポンド（約2兆4千億円）の年金債務があり、買い手が現れる可能性はゼロに近い。イギリス政府は一時的救済は講じるかもしれないが、再国有化などを行う意思はない。つまり見殺しにする以外に方法はないということだ。

政府としては鉄鋼産業は不可欠なものと考えているが存続のための具体策はないとしている。結論的にTarbot製鉄所は閉鎖する運命にある。イギリスはサッチャー以来次々と製造業がダメになり、限りなく「後進国」へ逆戻りしつつある。ＥＵに残留してもしなくてもイギリスは保守党政権では救えない。キャメロンは中国に救済を求める気持ちがあるらしいが、中国は自国の製鉄業をどうするかで手一杯であり、イギリスの鉄鋼業の面倒まで見られない。

ＥＵは中国とロシアの鋼材輸入には26.6％のダンピン税を課したが、イギリス政府はもともと「自由貿易尊重」の立場からダンピング課税についても熱心ではないという。米国は266％のダンピング課税を行っている。

労働党の影の内閣は何とか政府による救済を考えるべきだと主張している。しかし、それをやるには2-3兆円の資金が必要である。解雇された労働者にある程度の補償をするのが精いっぱいではなかろうか？現在イギリスには4万人の鉄鋼労働者がいるがタタの関係は1万6千人が雇用されているという。タタは撤退するに当たり、いくら「賠償金」を支払うかも問題である。資産価値ゼロなうえに年金債務が2兆円を超えていてはタタも全部は面倒見られないとゴテまくるであろう。もとＢＳＣのオンボロ工場を買った失敗のツケけを払わなければならない。タイのサハヴィリヤ・スチールもそれで潰れた。

Tata steel crisis: UK may offer sweeteners to tempt potential buyers ; Guardian:2016-4-3

Business secretary Sajid Javid says government prepared to offer incentives on pensions and energy costs to help find buyer

The UK government is prepared to offer help with pension liabilities and energy costs to potential buyers of Tata’s threatened steel plants, Sajid Javid, the business secretary, has said.

Javid said the government wanted to find a buyer for the whole of Tata’s UK business, including the Port Talbot steelworks, as he defended his handling of the crisis against accusations that ministers are letting the steel industry fail.

After a week of intense criticism, the business secretary said he believed there was still time to find a buyer and the government was prepared to offer sweeteners.

“Tata will issue an offer document very soon. Alongside that, the UK government know – I’ve known for a while – that we’re also going to have to offer support to clinch that buyer and give that steel plant a long-term, viable future,” he said.

He added: “No one is talking about nationalisation of pension schemes but it is something I absolutely recognise is a challenge.”

Javid has previously rejected nationalising Tata’s steel plants but left the door open for the government to offer some sort of temporary bailout.

“I don’t think nationalisation is a solution to this. Having said that, I also think it wouldn’t be prudent to rule anything out at this stage, but I think that nationalisation is rarely an answer in these situations,” he said.

“I do feel, though, for lots of reasons, after talking to Tata and many others involved in this, that there will be enough time to find the right buyer working with the government and being able to take this forward. We will look at everything we can do to allow a sale going ahead and I wouldn’t rule anything out at this stage.”

Javid has been under pressure since Tata confirmed it was withdrawing from Port Talbot and other UK sites, threatening tens of thousands of jobs, while he was on a trade visit to Australia accompanied by his teenage daughter.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, the business secretary acknowledged he had known for some weeks that Tata was considering pulling out of the UK.

However, Javid said he pressed ahead with the trade trip because he had not anticipated Tata executives would make such a strong announcement after their critical board meeting in Mumbai.

The business secretary has also been criticised for fighting to block the EU’s lesser duty rule from protecting UK steel from cheap Chinese imports being dumped on the market.

However, Javid insisted it was “misleading” to suggest the UK had not done enough within the EU, highlighting a separate move to support higher tariffs on some steel products.

John McDonnell, Labour’s shadow chancellor, warned on the same programme that it could cost more than £1bn in welfare benefits if the government allowed the steel industry to collapse.

He said it was a mistake for the government to rule out nationalising the steel plants. “If we can find another buyer it’s got to be not an asset-stripping job, we’ve got to have some guarantees – keeping Port Talbot open for example,” McDonnell said.

“If we haven’t got that leeway in the timescale, well then, as a fallback yes, nationalise in the short-term to stabilise the situation, prepare the sector, then before you look back out to another buyer. That would give us the stability that we need in this sector.”

On the BBC’s Pienaar’s Politics, Angela Eagle, the shadow business secretary, also attacked Javid and other ministers for taking a laissez-faire approach that amounted to “sit on your backside and let the whole thing go”.

EU rules prevent the UK from offering state support to its beleaguered steel industry but there could be ways to take on pension liabilities and offer relief for energy costs.

ThyssenKrupp was in talks with Tata three months ago about buying Port Talbot and its other UK sites as part of a deal to buy its European business, including its other major steelworks in the Netherlands.

However, the German company walked away owing to concerns about Tata’s UK division losses and its pension liabilities of almost £15bn.

24. Tata to Sell European Long Products Division to Greybull Capital (2016-4-12)
タタ・スチールは英国の条鋼部門をGreybull Capitalにとりあえず売却。

LONDON—India’s Tata Steel Ltd. EQTATASTEEL 1.63 % has agreed to sell its European long-products steel division, primarily located in the U.K., for a nominal sum to British-based family investment firm Greybull Capital.

The proposed agreement is in line with the Tata Steel’s plan to exit its ailing U.K. steelmaking business in light of its severe funding requirements.

On Monday, the Mumbai-based steelmaker also formally kicked off the sale process for its remaining U.K. steel business, which includes a steel plant in Port Talbot, Wales.

The Greybull deal, scheduled to be completed in eight weeks subject to regulatory approval, would safeguard 4,400 out of Tata Steel’s 15,000 jobs in the U.K. and an additional 400 in France.

Greybull is arranging a £400 million ($565 million) investment package for the business, which makes construction and railwaysteel from a mill in Scunthorpe, two mills in Teesside, an engineering workshop in Workington and a mill in Hayange, France. The business will be transferred to Greybull debt-free, while all legacy pension liabilities will remain with Tata Steel.

Tata Steel had been trying to sell its ailing long-products business—products that include plates, sections, wire rod and semifinished steel—since 2014 in the face of weak steel prices, a wave of cheap steel imports from China and high manufacturing costs. It entered talks with Greybull in December after talks to sell the business to another investor collapsed over the summer.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to become the next shareholder,” said Greybull Capital co-founder Marc Meyohas. Greybull plans to rebrand the business to British Steel, its storied name before becoming Corus via the 1999 merger with Netherlands-based Koninklijke Hoogovens, and then Tata Steel Europe via Tata’s 2007 takeover of Corus.

Mr. Meyohas, who runs the investment firm with his brother Nathaniel, said the business has all the key ingredients to be successful. Tata Steel already completed half of the business’s three-year turnaround and doesn’t need more job cuts above the 1,200 announced last October, according to Mr. Meyohas. The business should become profitable in its first year after deal closure and has already swung to a small profit in March, he said.

U.K. Business Secretary Sajid Javid said the deal is a step in the right direction for the long-term future of British steel manufacturing in Scunthorpe. “We will now look through the detail and stand ready to provide funding on a commercial basis if required,” he said.

Half of the £400 million investment package will come from Greybull while the remainder will come from banks and possibly the U.K. government, Mr. Meyohas said. The businesses’ labor unions are also due to vote by April 19 on a one-year 3% pay cut and lower pension contribution, to help restore the business to profitability, a Community union spokesman said.

Tata Steel said Monday it has hired advisory firm KPMG LLP to find potential suitors for the remaining U.K. business, which includes Port Talbot and which it previously said needed to be sold ‘urgently’.

Metals firm Liberty House last week signaled interest in the assets, depending on government support, but said it wasn’t interested in operating blast furnaces at Port Talbot. Mr. Meyohas, by contrast, said he still believes in a future for U.K. blast furnaces that make steel, leaving open the possibility of considering a similar investment after restoring the current business to a path of growth.

25. ドイツでSteel dayのデモ（2016-4-13）

Steel day of action: IG Metall, employers and German government demand trade war

By our correspondents
13 April 2016

Monday’s day of action held under the motto “Steel is the future” was a reactionary and shameful display. While many steel workers are alarmed about the future of their jobs, the German metalworkers union IG Metall organised the rallies as a backdrop against which management and government representatives could demand protective tariffs and trade war measures against China.

Around 45,000 steelworkers took part in rallies held in Duisburg, Berlin, Saarbrücken and several other cities. Among the speakers were high-ranking trade union officials and employee representatives as well as government officials and steel bosses.

The aim of these events was not to defend jobs, though this was mentioned repeatedly. Rather, they were aimed at promoting German economic interests and safeguarding company profits. To a man, the speakers demanded sanctions against China and the withdrawal of planned environmental protection regulations.

At the same time, workers were told to expect further job cuts, in keeping with a “necessary” consolidation of the steel industry. IG Metall officials were noticeably eager to link the growing conflict within domestic steel companies, which are preparing massive job cuts, to a combined struggle of workers and businesses against China.

The largest rally took place in Duisburg. The unions claimed a total of 16,000 workers gathered in front of Gate 1 of the ThyssenKrupp steelworks in the north of the city.

A video shown on the rally stage set the nationalist tone for the day of action. According to the union video, if the amount of Chinese steel imported to Germany had instead been manufactured in Germany, it would have resulted not in 14 million tons of CO2 emissions, but “only” 9.8 million tons (35 billion tons of CO2 are emitted annually).

Keynote speakers were IG Metall chairman Jörg Hofmann and German finance minister Sigmar Gabriel (Social Democratic Party, SPD).

Hofmann declared: “If China claims to be a market economy, then it must abide by market laws.”

“State subsidised steel dumping,” he added, cannot be a part of it. “We don’t want protectionism,” he maintained, “only fair competition.”

“We have seen a lot of restructuring in the steel industry, and that will continue,” he announced. “But that is only possible together with the workforce,” he shouted.

Hofmann is talking about the trade unions. They are offering their services to push through the coming attacks against the workforce—in Duisburg, IG Metall, the steel companies and politicians constantly spoke of “necessary consolidation.” According to Hofmann, they want to “sit down at a table in Berlin and Brussels” with the steel companies.

As Günter Back, chairman of the employee representative council at ThyssenKrupp, declared: “In the consolidation of the steel industry, let’s not sit at the children’s table.”

Hofmann shouted, “2016 is the fateful year for steel.” Several other speakers before and after him employed this formulation.

Hofmann called on the government to involve itself in the “sustainability” of the steel industry. “It is therefore good that our IG Metall colleague and Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel is here today,” he declared.

Finance Minister Gabriel began by relating his personal experience. He came from Salzgitter and had represented IG Metall for a long time on the supervisory board of the Salzgitter AG steel company. “At that time [1998] we worked to prevent the sale of Salzgitter AG and temporarily place it under state control in order to secure jobs,” said Gabriel.

The state of Lower Saxony holds 26.5 percent of the shares of Germany’s second largest steel company. However, that does not mean jobs are better protected. Salzgitter AG also cut positions.

Gabriel also spoke out against Chinese steel imports: “The EU must finally take measures against steel that enters the market below the cost of production.” The SPD chairman reported that members of the government are warning of a trade war with China. He was confident this could be avoided. One could achieve nothing “if one draws in one’s horns.” He added, “The Chinese understand plain language.”

He pledged to “dear Jörg” (IG Metall boss Hofmann) that he would not agree to any regulation that did not take the protection of jobs exactly as seriously as it did the protection of the climate, neither in Europe nor in the German government. If a consolidation was necessary, “then it must not be allowed to take place only in Germany.”

Heiko Reese, leader of the IG Metall steel office in Düsseldorf, had previously stressed that the union would fight for the steel industry together with the employers. “I’m delighted to welcome Mr. Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff, the president of the German Steel Federation,” said Reese.

The industrialist declared the steel industry was systemically important for Germany. Great Britain had shown where a concentration on banking and service providers leads. Unlike in Britain, said Kerkhoff, one must fight against the de-industrialisation of Germany. “We’re fighting for the competitive strength of Germany. For that we need the federal and state governments.”

When Hannelore Kraft, the minister president of North Rhine-Westphalia, offered support, a steel worker from ThyssenKrupp declared angrily, “She said the same thing to the Opel workers in Bochum. And what happened? The factory was torn down and of the more than 5,000 workers, 500 at the most have jobs.”

Most of the workers reacted with similar scepticism and suspicion to the IG Metall functionaries, as well as the squad of local, state and federal politicians in attendance. “They’re sitting there together with the employers negotiating the next job cuts,” said two ThyssenKrupp steel workers from Dortmund before the rally began. “This is all just a show put on by IG Metall.”

At the rally in front of the Chancellery in Berlin, representatives of IG Metall and the invited steel bosses and government officials also spread anti-Chinese nationalism. Among other things, they spoke of “getting the Chinese rulers to ecological sanity” and “putting the great power China in its place” and repeatedly urged the German trade unions, businesses and politicians “not to let themselves be divided against China.”

As soon as World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke with steel workers, it became clear that many rejected the nationalism of the trade unions. Two young workers from the town of Eisenhüttenstadt remarked: “Workers in China are ultimately doing the same job as us and confront the same problems.” They agreed that their allies were the workers throughout Europe and the world and not the trade union bureaucrats, steel bosses and politicians on the stage in front of them.

An older worker, also from Eisenhüttenstadt, stressed that the job cuts of the last year were carried out through the close collaboration of the unions and the companies. Of the more than 10,000 steel workers once employed, today there are only about 2,500 remaining. This developed into a longer discussion on the necessity of a socialist perspective and a united international struggle of the workers independently of the trade unions.

Members of the Partei für Soziale Gleichheit (Socialist Equality Party, PSG) distributed thousands of copies of the joint statement by the PSG and its sister party, the Socialist Equality Party (Britain). It states the following: “The nationalistic closing of ranks of the unions with the steel corporations is reactionary in every respect:

Yesterday’s day of action by IG Metall completely confirms this assessment and serves as a serious warning to workers.

Representatives of the world’s leading steel producing nations have failed to agree on any measures to tackle the crisis in the industry.

A meeting Monday in Brussels was billed as a “High-Level Symposium on Excess Capacity and Structural Adjustment in the Steel Sector,” organised by the Belgian government and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Instead of resolving tensions, it marked a further stepping up of an ongoing trade war.

Ministers and other high-level government officials in charge of steel-related industrial and trade policies from 34 countries attended, including the United States, China and India, which collectively produce 93 percent of global steel output. Alongside these were representatives from the European Union (EU), World Trade Organisation, the World Steel Association, and delegates from various private sector steel corporations.

The meeting was called in response to the massive global overcapacity in steel production. The OECD noted that global steelmaking capacity was 2.37 billion tonnes in 2015, but declining production meant only 67.5 percent of that was being used—down from 70.9 percent in 2014. New plants were set to add another 47 million metric tonnes by 2018.

China, which has gone from producing a few percent of the world’s steel a few decades ago, produced half of all steel worldwide in 2015. It now has an overcapacity of 350 million tons, according to EU estimates. This is double the amount produced in one year in the entire EU. China’s attempt to export some of its surplus has led to a collapse in steel prices of up to 40 percent. In March, China announced that 500,000 jobs would go in its steel industry, with capacity to be drastically reduced.

According to World Steel Association chairman Wolfgang Eder, “The problem in Europe is that there is too much capacity” and the industry would probably have to be reduced by half in the next 15 years to survive. Given that 330,000 workers are employed at more than 500 sites throughout Europe, the scale of job losses entailed would be staggering.

The “overarching focus” of the Brussels meeting was “on promoting structural adjustment in the steel industry and reducing excess capacity by removing distortionary government policies and through industry restructuring.” It aimed to “agree on steps to reduce competition-distorting policies.”

Behind such phrases, the real agenda of the meeting was for the major imperialist powers to confront China, not an OECD member, with threats of escalating sanctions.

Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeter, who chaired the meeting, acknowledged that “very frank” discussions took place. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said, “It’s now life or death for many companies” as “the massive surge in steel imports from China is hitting Europe very hard and the price of steel in Europe has dropped by 40 percent in the last years.” Singling out China again, she said a “crucial problem here is of course the involvement of states and support, and not market needs, and this has created incentives to overproduce.”

Malmstrom warned that the EU has begun to impose a series of tariffs against China and was now “examining a few other Chinese issues as well and we might bring them further later this year.”

Following the meeting, US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Trade Representative Michael Froman released a belligerent statement, warning: “Unless China starts to take timely and concrete actions to reduce its excess production and capacity in industries including steel ... the fundamental structural problems in the industry will remain and affected governments—including the United States—will have no alternatives other than trade action to avoid harm to their domestic industries and workers.”

Li Xinchuang, the vice secretary general of the China Iron and Steel Association, was belligerent in his response, stating, “It is a totally pointless complaint from the US and it’s biased against China.”

Speaking to Reuters, Li said, “China’s steel industry is market-based and Chinese steel products have good quality, low price and good service. The complaint on government subsidies is also crap.”

Xinhua, China’s official state news agency, declared that assigning blame to the Chinese steel industry was “a lame and lazy excuse for protectionism. … Blaming other countries is always an easy, sure-fire way for politicians to whip up a storm over domestic economic woes, but finger-pointing and protectionism are counterproductive.”

China's assistant commerce minister, Zhang Ji, told reporters that China had cut 90 million tonnes of capacity and would reduce it by a further 100-150 million tonnes. Asked what steps the government would take following the unsuccessful talks, Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang told reporters Tuesday, “China has already done more than enough. What more do you want us to do?”

Even though any decisions reached at the meeting were to be nonbinding, nothing whatsoever could be agreed other than a “follow-up high-level discussion in September 2016.”

For decades, the trade unions in every country have played a central role in dividing steel workers and sabotaging all struggles, as they facilitated the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs and attacks on wages, terms and conditions, and pension rights. Today they openly act as the nationalist cheerleaders for corporations and are the staunchest advocates of protectionism and trade war measures.

On February 15, Brussels witnessed the repulsive spectacle of steel unions and employers associations from 17 European countries holding a joint demonstration at the EU Commission to demand further trade war measures against China. Given their record it was fitting that trade union representatives were invited to speak at Monday’s meeting. The union reps were asked to present reports in a session of the summit dealing with “structural adjustment challenges in the steel sector.” Their expertise was called on in a session aimed at “Drawing on the experiences that economies have had in restructuring their steel industries in the past … and how these lessons could be applied to develop effective strategies for addressing the current crisis in the steel industry.”

The official report of the meeting said the trade union speakers “noted the importance of ensuring that all countries play by the same trade and social rules.”

The same day as the Brussels summit, the United Steel Workers union (USW) filed a case with US regulators to demand “four years of increased tariffs” on “a flood of foreign [aluminium] imports.” The USW said, “The majority of the aluminium currently flooding into the US market comes from Canada, the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela.” USW International President Leo W. Gerard said, “Aluminium is vital to our national and economic security, and this case will help us retain and begin to rebuild domestic production of primary unwrought aluminium.”

Aluminium, he continued, “is a vital product for our aircraft and weapon systems. It’s used in construction, manufacturing and in electrical transmission.”

China had to be confronted, insisted the USW, as the “significant imbalance between supply and demand in primary unwrought aluminium” was “principally caused by massive capacity additions in China that exceed growth in demand.”

Lining up with the Obama administration’s war drive against China, the statement warned, “Aluminium, steel, paper and many other USW-represented sectors have been the targets of unfair trade. … This vital case draws a line in the sand. We will not cede primary unwrought aluminium production.”

27. ArcelorMittal Narrows Losses (2016-5-6)

Steelmaker upbeat but cautions that excess steel capacity in China still remains a concern

LONDON—Steel giant ArcelorMittal on Friday said it narrowed its net loss in the first quarter and forecast improved earnings to come as steel prices begin to recover, but cautioned that excess steel capacity in China still remains a concern.

The Luxembourg-based steelmaker, the world’s largest by production accounting for some 6% of global steel output, reported a net loss of $416 million in the three months ended March 31, 2016 compared with a $728 million net loss in the same period a year earlier.

The figure missed expectations of a $319 million net loss based on a FactSet poll of six analysts. Meanwhile, revenue fell 22% to $13.4 billion due to lower steel and iron ore prices as well as lower steel and iron ore shipments.

“Our results for the first quarter reflect the very tough operating conditions in the second half of 2015,” said Chief Executive Lakshmi Mittal. “Since that time we have seen a recovery in spreads in our core markets to more sustainable levels, which is expected to result in improved results in the coming quarters,” he added. Mr. Mittal, however, cautioned that the global steel market remains fragile given excess steel capacity in China.

ArcelorMittal earlier this year raised $3.2 billion through a rights issue to strengthen its balance sheet given a protracted steel price rout globally. Shares subsequently rallied and are up 55% so far this year, buoyed by a pickup in steel prices in its key U.S. and European markets as well as China.

Despite a global surplus and a record $47 billion of debt, companies including Tata Steel Ltd. and Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. plan to boost India’s capacity by 34 percent, with a third of the work set for completion by year-end, Bloomberg Intelligence estimates. The expansion may cost $33 billion at a time when many producers are hemorrhaging cash, according to India Ratings & Research.

The world’s third-largest steel industry is banking on a building boom as the economy rebounds in India, where the government is investing in new railways, power plants and housing. But a surge of cheaper Chinese imports has hurt domestic suppliers just like in Europe and the U.S., widening losses for companies already saddled with too much debt. Many producers are selling assets, while Electrosteel Steels Ltd. was among a few taken over by lenders.

“They don’t have the financial strength to invest further,” which means any large-scale increases in capacity are “not on the horizon for at least two to three years,” said Salil Garg, a director at India Ratings in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to almost triple the size of the domestic industry over the next decade. He is seeking to reduce the country’s reliance on imports, part of a “Made in India” campaign that predates the global slump. The Steel Ministry estimates capacity will rise to 300 million metric tons by 2025 from 110 million now. So far, 37 million tons is under construction or planned, with 14.5 million set to be online by the end of 2016, said Yi Z. said it will more than double to 40 million tons by 2025 from 18 million now. Tata Steel expects to begin producing this year from its Kalinganagar plant, with a capacity of 3 million tons.

But the new wave of expansions comes after years of investment in capacity increases that fueled a global surplus. Domestic iron and steel producers owe banks a record 3.1 trillion rupees ($47 billion), the Reserve Bank of India estimates. To reach Modi’s capacity goal, those companies would have to invest another 12 trillion rupees, based on an estimated 60 billion rupees for every 1 million-ton increase in capacity, according to India Ratings & Research.

Demand for domestic supplies has slowed as purchases of cheaper supplies from China, the world’s top producer, surged 20 percent to a record of 11.2 million tons in the year through March, government data show.

“In any scenario where demand is muted and additional capacities, once they come on stream, are unable to operate at optimum capacities, it becomes difficult to service debt,” said Garg of India Ratings.

Some companies are moving to shore up their balance sheets. Jindal Steel said May 5 it will raise 30 billion rupees selling non-core assets, part of a plan to shrink debt below 300 billion rupees in the next four years from 460 billion rupees now.

Like other countries, India has imposed levies to limit cheap Chinese imports and put a floor on slumping prices. Exports that reached a record by the end of March had slowed in April. That’s giving some producers more confidence to pursue expanded capacity.

The prolonged slump in prices is forcing some of the world’s producers to shut plants, easing the surplus. Last year, Chinese steelmakers exported a record 112 million tons. This year, shipments may drop to 100 million tons, the China Iron & Steel Association estimates.

More infrastructure spending also may help. The government is forecasting a 10 percent increase in steel demand this year, and India’s economy is growing faster than almost every other country. Gross domestic product will expand 7.7 percent in the year through March 2017, the most since 2010, according to the median estimate of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Still, growth would need to be almost 12 percent a year to justify the government’s steel-expansion goal, which was made in 2012, before the current global slump, according to A.S. Firoz, chief economist with the Economic Research Unit of the Steel Ministry.

“At this moment, such growth rates are definitely not in sight,” Firoz said by telephone from New Delhi. The steel-capacity target “may have to be revised,” he said.

India needs better regulations, power availability and infrastructure improvement before its steel industry can take the torch from China, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Yi Zhu. India’s finished steel production fell 1.1 percent to 91 million tons in the year ended March 31, far outpacing consumption of 80.3 million tons, which was up 4 percent, according to the steel ministry.

“We have to tread very cautiously,” Jindal Steel Managing Director Ravi Uppal said in a May 5 interview. “The steel industry has gone through difficult times in the last one and a half years. The idea would be to focus on assets that are already built up rather than for a company to invest more and more.”

Steel Authority of India Ltd., the country’s biggest producer, plans to increase capacity to 21.4 million tons from 13.9 million tons, while JSW Steel Ltd

	08/1-8	09/1-8	前年比	シェアー
中国	351,367	369,651	5.2	48.7
日本	82,257	52,661	-36.0	6.9
インド	36,478	37,015	1.5	4.9
ロシア	50,857	36,821	-27.6	4.8
米国	68,133	34,508	-49.4	4.5
韓国	36,743	31,189	-15.1	4.1
ドイツ	32,183	19,476	-39.5	2.6
ウクライナ	29,137	18,937	-35.0	2.5
世界合計	927,777	759,497	-18.1	100

13.Steelworkers union begins counting ballots in sellout contract at US Steel(2016-2-1) TPPは中国鋼材の輸入をさらに容易にする。

By Evan Winters 30 January 2016

16.Italian steel work faces closure or sell-off(2016-2-8)

City hall occupation in Genoa

The myth of the Riva rescue

Workplace accidents

17.アルセロール・ミッタルの大ピンチ（2016-2-9）

19.Thousands to Protest in Brussels Against China Steel Trading（2016-2-14）

Calls to stop European Union granting market-economy status to world’s largest steel producer

Tata steel crisis: UK may offer sweeteners to tempt potential buyers ; Guardian:2016-4-3

The Observer view on the problems facing British industry

24. Tata to Sell European Long Products Division to Greybull Capital (2016-4-12) タタ・スチールは英国の条鋼部門をGreybull Capitalにとりあえず売却。

25. ドイツでSteel dayのデモ（2016-4-13） Steel day of action: IG Metall, employers and German government demand trade war

By our correspondents 13 April 2016

27. ArcelorMittal Narrows Losses (2016-5-6)

Steelmaker upbeat but cautions that excess steel capacity in China still remains a concern

13.Steelworkers union begins counting ballots in sellout contract at US Steel(2016-2-1)

TPPは中国鋼材の輸入をさらに容易にする。

By Evan Winters
30 January 2016

24. Tata to Sell European Long Products Division to Greybull Capital (2016-4-12)
タタ・スチールは英国の条鋼部門をGreybull Capitalにとりあえず売却。

25. ドイツでSteel dayのデモ（2016-4-13）

Steel day of action: IG Metall, employers and German government demand trade war

By our correspondents
13 April 2016