ArcelorMittal extends Kazakh workers' leave

ALMATY Oct 15 (Reuters) - The Kazakh unit of steel giant ArcelorMittal (MT.N) (ISPA.AS) has extended a half-pay leave for a third of its workers for another two weeks as part of a planned output cut, the company said on Wednesday.

ArcelorMittal said earlier this month it would reduce output by 30 percent year-on-year in 2008 due to shrinking demand. It sent 4,200 people on two weeks leave on Oct. 1.

"The leave has been prolonged until the end of October," a company official said by telephone from the industrial town of Temirtau where the company is based.

ArcelorMittal Temirtau, which exports most of its steel to China and Russia, is Kazakhstan's biggest steel producer and operates a plant with annual capacity of six million tonnes, as well as 15 coal production facilities. (Reporting by Tatiana Seroshtanova; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Paul Bolding)