What were the factors that led-up to the merger and what are the advantages for Arcelor?
Mr. Wurth: In our view or at least in the European perspective, we can say that consolidation in the steel industry has taken place in three steps. In the first one, in each of the countries where the steel industry was developing – thanks to the presence of coal or iron ore – you had a large number of small steel companies merging progressively over time in order to form one or a few national champions. This is, for instance, the stage in which the Chinese steel industry is today. I can give you some examples in Europe: Usinor in France, or Aceralia in Spain, or British Steel in Britain, or even ThyssenKrupp in Germany were created in this first stage. Then you had the second stage, when companies were trying to concentrate across their national borders. Typically, Usinor and Arbed had been quite active in this sense. Usinor had for instance integrated Cockerill of Belgium, and Arbed had grown internationally through its strategic alliance with Aceralia of Spain and also by taking ove
