PM Ponta: First post-crisis year in the black for ArcelorMittal Hunedoara

Prime Minister Victor Ponta visited the ArcelorMittal ironworks in Hunedoara (northwest of Bucharest) on Thursday. He declared the management told him the company will close this year on a profit.

'I understood from the management this is the first year on a plus, in the black, after many years of crisis; jobs are guaranteed, everybody is counting on a production increase (...) All the efforts we made since 2012 — firstly to save the ironworks industry, because closing it altogether was considered, owing to energy prices and to the European and international crisis — I'm glad to see they succeeded,' the prime minister said.

He stressed that the Executive will support investors who create and preserve jobs; one of the measures already taken was reducing the employers' contributions to social insurance.

'We will continue to help all the companies and big consumers that create and preserve jobs; you know very well we obtained an aid scheme from the European Commission, too. (...) I repeat: I want to see happy companies and owners, but I also want to see employees feeling they can earn, have a salary plus, and have — besides the guarantee of their jobs — a little better income,' Ponta declared.

He mentioned he expects many companies using the amount exempt from tax owing to the lower social contributions to reinvest for new technologies and production increases, and also to reward the workforce.

On the other hand, Ponta mentioned, Hunedoara has the advantage of a road infrastructure offering motorways to the companies; he promised again that the last section of the Deva-Sibiu motorway will be opened on November 15.AGERPRES