Bourg-en-Bresse, 26 November 2014 – ArcelorMittal, the world’s leading steel and mining company, will invest €15m to expand the production capacity of its plant at Bourg-en-Bresse and support the development of its customer Technip, a world leader in project management, engineering and construction for the energy industry.

The initial partnership agreement signed in 2013 has been extended in duration and volume.

The plant will also strengthen its team with the recruitment of around 20 people.

In 2015, the Bourg-en-Bresse plant will be equipped with a new heat treatment furnace and a new rolling mill.

In September 2013, ArcelorMittal was chosen by Technip to supply high-performance, high-strength steels used in the manufacture of flexible pipes for the development of deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil and gas fields, particularly at depths in excess of 1500 metres. The five-year partnership agreement(1) between ArcelorMittal and Technip, the largest European contract for ArcelorMittal’s wire business, has been extended by two years.

The partnership agreement signed in 2013 sustained the operations of the Bourg-en-Bresse plant, and this agreement extension will reinforce it.

ArcelorMittal Bourg-en-Bresse has become Technip’s supplier of choice for high-end technological and innovative solutions. The site supplies Technip flexible pipe manufacturing plants located in France, Brazil and Malaysia.

The commercial contract comes with a research and innovation contract that strengthens technological progress at the Bourg-en-Bresse plant. The Bourg-en-Bresse plant is developing new wire solutions tailored to Technip’s requirements.

ArcelorMittal is now the centre of excellence for the production of steel wire for flexible pipes for the buoyant offshore market. It also demonstrates that the group and its French production sites can market ever better products in response to customers’ requirements and the challenges that they face.

Patrick Laudamy, CEO of ArcelorMittal Bourg-en-Bresse, said: “This investment demonstrates ArcelorMittal’s confidence in the technical speciality markets. In one year, the Bourg-en-Bresse plant has become Technip’s preferred partner for the supply of high-strength steels. Today, we are strengthening our teams and our production capacity to support our customer. We will also pursue our research and innovation efforts in order to offer our customers increasingly high-performance products.”

“ArcelorMittal provides us with an indisputable competitive advantage in the market.  Technology and innovation are an integral part of the design of our flexible pipes and we therefore invest in R&D and pay particular attention to the quality of our supply chain. The contract that we are extending today forms part of this approach. We are proud to strengthen our partnership with ArcelorMittal and thus contribute to enabling it to expand the production capacity of its Bourg-en-Bresse plant,” added Jean-François Niel, Group SVP Global Manufacturing, Technip.