As of May 11 2009, ArcelorMittal Galati, Romania-based subsidiary of the world's largest integrated metals and mining company ArcelorMittal has placed its entire workforce on technical unemployment, due to the continuous downtrend of the steel market during the current time of crisis.
Accordingly, up to the end of July 2009, the workers, including the management, will be divided into groups, which in turns will be sent on technical unemployment for ten days at a time. During the period of technical unemployment the employees are to be paid 85 percent of their salaries.
According to management at ArcelorMittal Galati, the measure in question, which was initially planned for April 1 to July 1, 2009, will allow the company to reduce costs, as demand and the output of the mill are down 60 percent compared to the same period last year.
In 2009, ArcelorMittal Galati expects to produce a maximum 1.5 million mt of steel, increasing its output to three million mt per year in 2010-2012. In 2008, the plant produced 4.2 million mt of crude steel.