Czech ArcelorMittal unit lays off 550 over crisis: Report

PRAGUE: The Czech plant operated by the world's top steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, said on Monday it had laid off 550 of its 6,900 staff in the first two months of the year on low demand caused by the global economic downturn.

"Unfortunately, we had to cut the workforce because of the impact of the economic crisis," the CTK news agency quoted ArcelorMittal Ostrava personnel director Ctirad Lolek as saying.

ArcelorMittal, which announced in November that it might have to slash up to 9,000 jobs worldwide over the global crisis, including 6,000 in Europe, expects to lay off another 100 people from its Czech unit by mid-March.

For the final three months of 2008, the ArcelorMittal group reported an operating loss of 2.7 billion euros (3.5 billion dollars) on falling demand and writedowns on stock after cutting production by 45 per cent in the period.

The steel industry worldwide, which is highly cyclical, has been hard hit by the sharp fall in the global economy since the financial crisis erupted in late 2008.