The European Commission (EC) has requested a series of data from Romania by January 20 this year regarding four of the country's steel plants, namely, Mechel Targoviste, Mechel Campia Turzii, ArcelorMittal Hunedoara and ArcelorMittal Galati, the Romanian press agency Mediafax has reported.
Accordingly, the requested information concerns the strengthening of long-term economic-financial viability in relation to labor productivity, production costs, energy and raw material consumption, as well as investment focus on technological and labor objectives.
On December 15, 2009, the final monitoring reports on the Romanian steel industry from 2008 were discussed in Brussels, focusing on the long-term viability of the Romanian steel companies. "The conclusion drawn was that Romania has respected all its EU accession treaty engagements, namely non-provision of state grant aids after 2004 and the closing down of all the obsolete production capacities in the steel sector," reads the statement of Romania's economy ministry.
According to the EC accession treaty, the restructuring and viability process of the Romanian steel industry was to be monitored between 2004 and 2008. In 2004 the steel companies drafted individual viability plans according to which they undertook that any state aid received would be used effectively in order to reach European long-term viability parameters.
Mechel Targoviste and Mechel Campia Turzii are the Romanian-based subsidiaries of the Russian mining and steel producing group Mechel, while ArcelorMittal Hunedoara and ArcelorMittal Galati are the Romania-based subsidiaries of the world's largest integrated metals and mining company ArcelorMittal.