The closure of steel blast furnaces at a small-town plant on Wednesday marked not just the end of an era but, for many workers, a "broken promise" by French President Francois Hollande. The ArcelorMittal-owned Florange plant, in the heart of the northeastern Lorraine region, has become a symbol for the dismantlement of France's industrial sector, from which 750,000 jobs have disappeared over the past decade.

As gas lines to blast furnaces at a small-town plant are gradually cut off on Wednesday, it marks not just the end of an era, but for many workers, a "broken promise" by French President Francois Hollande. The ArcelorMittal-owned Florange plant, in the heart of the northeastern Lorraine region, has become a symbol for the dismantlement of France's industrial sector, from which 750,000 jobs have disappeared over the past decade.

France's new state-backed investment bank BPI said Wednesday it chose not to help save a refinery and steel mill, the closures of which has been considered a failure of government efforts to save the nation's industrial base. The BPI looked into possible efforts to revive production at a mill owned by steel-giant Arcelor Mittal "we would have lost a lot of money and it wouldn't have been good business," said the bank's director Nicolas Dufourcq. Arcelor Mittal announced last week that it would begin shutting down the blast furnaces at its Florange facility.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - ArcelorMittal <ISPA.AS>, the world's largest steelmaker, set out a new $3 billion (1 billion pounds) plan to save money from production and confirmed its target of reducing debt sharply this year following credit rating downgrades. The Luxembourg-based company said it had targeted gains of $3 billion (1 billion pounds) by the end of 2015, having already reached a goal of $4.8 billion (3.1 billion pounds) of savings in sales and administrative expenses and other fixed and variable costs at the end of September 2012.