The French National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament, passed a bill to nationalize ArcelorMittal France, the country's largest steel producer, in a vote that took place on the night of Thursday 27 to Friday 28 November 2025, Fastmarkets reported.
The bill was supported by left-wing groups in the Assembly and rejected by parties supporting the government, but passed by 127 votes to 41, which its authors call a political signal about the future of steel production in France.
However, since this is a parliamentary initiative and not a government bill, the text is now being sent to the Senate, where the Conservative majority is expected to reject it or make significant amendments to it, and ministers have repeatedly stressed that the executive branch remains strongly opposed to nationalization.
ArcelorMittal's position
In response to a request from Fastmarkets, an ArcelorMittal representative stressed that nationalizing its assets "will in no way solve the problems faced by the French and European steel industries."
"The European steel market is flooded with massive imports of steel at low prices, which has a devastating impact on European producers. Europe must protect its steel market and quickly implement the trade protection measures announced in October, as well as an effective mechanism for regulating carbon dioxide emissions[CBAM]," the company said in a statement reviewed by Fastmarkets. "Changing the shareholder structure of ArcelorMittal will in no way affect the solution of these structural problems – rather the opposite. Splitting up the French assets and separating them from the rest of the group will only seriously worsen their situation."
In March 2025, the company launched a massive maintenance program worth more than 270 million euros ($314 million) at its two main plants in France, including a three-month shutdown of its largest blast furnace in Dunkirk, on the northern coast of France, amid production delays. a project to decarbonize the same site at a cost of 1.8 billion euros
.In May 2025, the company confirmed its plan to decarbonize its French assets after months of uncertainty, but other green investments in Europe remain on hold.
"Over the past five years, ArcelorMittal has invested about 1.7 billion euros in France. Recent investments included the construction of a ladle furnace in Fos-sur-Mer on the south coast (76 million euros) and a new electrical steel workshop, which will soon begin operations in Mardik on the north coast, which is ArcelorMittal's largest investment in Europe in the last 10 years (600 million euros)," it says. in the message.
