ISPAT, the only steel-maker in the Republic, must pay its way or shut down, the chief executive of the Cork Harbour plant, Mr John Gorman, has said.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Gorman said steel production at the Haulbowline mill has dropped well below the 8,000 tonnes a week reached for nine months last year, when the company either broke even or made a profit.
"We must reach the target of 425,000 tonnes annually. That's what is needed because if the plant cannot pay its way, then it will have no future. The work force is not being asked to do anything it hasn't done before.
"These production levels were reached for most of last year. We are working in a tough, competitive, cyclical industry and there are also particular difficulties associated with making steel in Ireland.
"I have told the workers that no decision has been made to close the plant, what's been said is that if we want to keep the plant open we have to increase our production levels to the required target." Asked how soon the company wished to see increased production, Mr Gorman replied: "yesterday."
What would happen if the targets were not reached? "They can be reached," he said.
The steel industry was experiencing difficulties everywhere, Mr Gorman went on, and the ISPAT plant was no exception. "If you look at what is happening, you will see that plants are going through Chapter 11 bankruptcies or closing down in America. British Steel has been brought to its knees through bad trading and production difficulties. If our plant can't pay its way, there will not be a future."
He added: "You must remember that there are ever-increasing demands on us. Only 10 per cent of our production is used in the home market. That means we have to export the remainder to very tough markets in Europe and North America.
"We have to deal with wage pressures and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find skilled labour in a smoke-stack industry like ours when the new industries are soaking up all the good people."
After an accident in January, "we also lost a full week's production and it is very difficult in an industry like ours to make that up," he said.
On safety, Mr Gorman said the company deeply regretted the death of Mr Thomas Mulcahy (53) in a fire at the plant in January. It also regretted an accident some years before when an employee died after falling from a crane. Neither accident could have been foreseen or legislated for, he said.
On the basis of fair play, the company was objecting to conditions the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was seeking to impose in its Integrated Pollution Licence.
ISPAT thought the EPA conditions were far stricter than those imposed on other steel plants or industries operating similar processes, he said.
The part of the complex where the fire occurred was operating to standards which were in place when the plant was State-owned and run by Irish Steel. ISPAT, he added, was doing everything in its power to create a safe operating and working environment but hot metal and water did not easily mix and there were risks associated with the industry.
ISPAT's operation at Haul bow line compared favourably with the record of steel plants elsewhere, and suggestions that it could cost £10 million to implement the EPA conditions were "taken from the air", Mr Gorman said.
ISPAT was doing its own financial evaluation. . For competition reasons the company did not disclose profits or running costs, he added. ISPAT employs almost 400 people.