Wallonian bid to stay in premier league

Date: 17/10/1996

THE attention given to Forges de Clabecq in recent months has rather overshadowed other developments in Wallonian steel-making.

In September, the region's dominant player Cockerill Sambre announced the launch of a three-year plan aimed at keeping this senior steel-maker in the European first division, if not the premier league.

At the heart of the plan is a programme to cut the number of employees by a fifth, with the 2,000 job cuts shared between its Liège and Charleroi plants.

The job-shedding plan comes despite the fact that the company has emerged less scathed than some from the economic slow-down last year and the depression of prices in the steel market.

Company results are expected to come close to balance this year and even register a profit in 1997.

Last year, the company decided to take the plunge into the eastern German market with the purchase of Eko Stahl, but this has still left the firm slightly too small for comfort in the European market.

As a result, its management is considering alliances to reduce costs through the elimination of duplicated work.

When rumours spread through the Brussels market that the firm might be obliged to take a stake in Clabecq, its share price plunged.

It never happened but the experience proved that there is no such thing as a victim-less subsidy.