The steel group ArcelorMittal was indicted for “endangering others” and “false and use of false”. It is questioned for industrial pollution in the Fos-sur-Mer region (Bouches du Rhône) said this Tuesday the Marseille prosecutor’s office. The group was placed under judicial supervision with a deposit of 250,000 euros and the constitution of a bank guarantee of 1.7 million euros, said the public prosecutor, Nicolas Bessone, confirming information from Mediapart.
ArcelorMittal was prosecuted by 300 residents and associations for having exhibited the population of the Fos-sur-Mer region to discharges of illegal pollutants. In a statement sent to AFP (Agency France Press), the steelmaker, who says “cooperate fully with the authorities”, “firmly challenges the accusations”.
The group claims to have reduced its 70 % emissions since 2002
ArcelorMittal “has invested more than 735 million euros since 2014 in particular in particular to modernize its facilities or innovate to reduce emission levels whose normative thresholds are always more demanding”. “These actions allowed him to reduce atmospheric emissions from this site by 70 % compared to 2002,” he added.
After having exploited two years two-forces in Fos, Arcelor, who had resumed in 2005 a steel grip dating from 1974, had arrested one of them in 2023, invoking the drop in steel consumption.
According to a recent ARCELORMITTAL document, the site, which has a production capacity of more than 4 million tonnes per year, “produced between 2 and 3.5 per year depending on market needs, and its direct CO2 emissions have reached an average of 5.6 million tonnes per year over the last five years”. ArcelorMittal Méditerranée employs around 2,400 employees and 1,100 subcontractors in Fos-sur-Mer, of which he is the main employer.