On January 12, employees of El-Hajar-based ArcelorMittal Annaba, Algerian subsidiary of the world's largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal, began a strike for an indefinite period, halting production at the steel plant.
About 7,200 workers at the plant went on strike, demanding the reopening of the coking plant with 600,000 metric tons annual production capacity, which was closed in October 2009, for safety and environmental reasons.
In 2009, the Annaba plant produced 750,000 metric tons of flat and long products, mainly for the Algerian domestic market. The plant's annual crude steel production capacity is about 2 million metric tons.