经济学人28:法国的钢铁制造 聚焦洛林

 　　Business.

　　商业。
　　Steelmaking in France.
　　法国的钢铁制造。
　　Cross over Lorraine.
　　聚焦洛林。
　　The closure of a steelmaking plant annoys the new president.
　　钢铁厂的关闭令新总统烦恼。
　　AMONG the first visitors to the Elysee Palace after Francois Hollande's victory in the French presidential election last month were trade-union leaders from ArcelorMittal's steel factory at Florange, in Lorraine. The region is the crucible 1 of France's traditional heavy industry: people have been making iron in Lorraine for more than 300 years. But the blast-furnace fires started to go out last year when recession slashed 2 demand for steel and forced ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker by some distance, to start closing its least efficient plants. By October both Florange's furnaces had been snuffed out, supposedly for a year. Last month the company said they would stay cool for another six months.
　　Francois Hollande上个月赢得法国总统选举后爱丽舍宫的第一批访客中就有来自洛林Florange地区ArcelorMittal钢铁厂的工会领袖。此地是法国传统重工业的熔炉：人们在洛林炼铁已超过300年。但是当去年的衰退严重削弱了钢铁的需求时，高炉的炉火开始熄灭，几乎是世界最大的钢铁厂ArcelorMittal被迫开始关闭它效率不高的工厂。10月份时Florange的高炉已经停产，估计持续一年。上个月公司说他们将再停炉6个月。
　　The unions fear that they will never be fired up again and that steelmaking on a symbolic 3 site will come to an end. After the union leaders' visit Mr Hollande asked Arnaud de Montebourg, the minister for productivity, to get an expert to review the prospects 4 for Florange and to request the governments of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain to "act together vis-a-vis ArcelorMittal"-whatever that means.
　　工会担心公司再也不会恢复生产，具有象征意义的钢铁制造区将终结。与工会领袖会晤后，Hollande先生要求生产部长Arnaud de Montebourg 找一个专家评估Florange的前景，同时要求比利时，德国，卢森堡和西班牙"共同行动vis-a-vis ArcelorMittal"-不管那意味着什么。
　　Union fears are probably well founded: ArcelorMittal has labelled Florange and its plants at Liege, in Belgium, "non-core". The company has already started the cumbersome 5, two-year process needed under Belgian labour law to close Liege permanently 6. Although it describes the Florange shutdown as temporary, it plainly wants to close that plant for good too, although it is loth to say so in public.
　　工会的担心可能成真：ArcelorMittal已经把Florange和它在比利时Liege的工厂标记为"非核心"。公司已经开始周转不灵，按比利时劳动法永久关闭Liege需要2年时间。尽管Florange的关闭被说成是暂时的，但很明显公司也想永久关闭该工厂，只是它不愿公开这么说。
　　With overcapacity in Europe and consolidation 7 worldwide, only modern, coastal 8 steelworks can compete. Older, inland sites, originally built atop iron-ore mines, are now seeing the world pass them by. Pressure to close less efficient plants has increased since Arcelor and Corus, both European firms, were merged 9 into the global Mittal and Tata empires in the past five years and since recession put an end to a steel boom.
　　随着欧洲生产过剩和世界范围内的兼并，只有现代化的，位于海边的钢材有竞争力。较老的，位于内陆的，起初建在铁矿附近的钢厂现在已经落伍了。自从两家欧洲公司Arcelor和Corus在过去5年被global Mittal和Tata帝国合并，自从衰退结束了钢铁业的繁荣，关闭效率低下的工厂的压力增加了。
　　But the Florange site has more than just blast furnaces: they employ only about 500 workers out of a total of 2,700. The rest are in rolling mills that prepare finished steel for the car and construction industries or in research and development. With the blast furnaces shut, steel slabs 10 are shipped inland from the company's coastal furnaces at Dunkirk. But that in turn is less efficient than doing everything at integrated coastal sites, such as Dunkirk, which import ore at one end and roll out finished steel at the other. So the fear is that in the long term even the rolling mills at Florange are doomed 11.
　　但是Florange不仅仅有高炉：高炉只雇佣了总数2700人中的500人。其余的人轧钢厂工作，轧钢厂生产用于汽车，建筑工业的精炼钢，其中一部分人从事研发工作。高炉被关闭后，钢厚板由公司位于敦刻尔克的海边钢厂运到内陆来。但是那样做与把所有工作都集中于沿海地区相比低效，比如在敦刻尔克，一端输入铁矿石，另一端产出精炼钢。因此令人担心的是长期而言Florange轧钢厂的关闭是不可避免的。
　　Since the first blast furnace closed last summer the workers have been mounting periodic protests in Florange and (occasionally) in Paris. The accession of Mr Hollande's Socialist 12 government has brought them powerful friends, or at least demonstrative ones: Aurelie Filippetti, the minister of culture, turned up outside the mill to toast the protesters with champagne 13.
　　自从去年夏天第一座高炉关闭以来，工人们定期在Florange和巴黎（偶尔）举行抗议。Hollande先生的社会党政府的上任使他们有了强大的朋友，或至少表明了这一点：文化部长Aurelie Filippetti出现在工厂外用香槟向抗议者敬酒。
　　Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal says it has had no contact with the Elysee Palace. The company, which has its headquarters in London and Luxembourg, employs 300,000 people-20,000 in France, where it is a leading foreign investor 14. Its foreign ownership may be one reason why it is under fire from the new government, but French firms could also be shot at, once this month's parliamentary elections are out of the way. PSA Peugeot-Citr?en, Air France-KLM and Carrefour are on a long list of firms said by unions to be preparing to announce mass redundancies.
　　同时，ArcelorMittal表明他没有接触爱丽舍宫。公司分别在伦敦及卢森堡拥有总部，共雇用了300,000人---20,000人在法国，对法国是个重要的投资者。它的外国投资者身份可能是它被新上台的政府攻击的一个原因，但是一旦这个月的议会选举出现异常，法国公司同样可能被攻击。PSA Peugeot-Citr?en, Air France-KLM和Carrefour公司都在工会传出的准备进行大规模裁员的一长列的公司清单中。