Sanjeev Gupta’s 2019 in review

Our Executive Chairman Sanjeev Gupta has filmed a message reflecting on 2019 – watch it below.

Video transcript

With Christmas celebrations upon us and 2019 coming to a close, now’s a good time to look back on what has been another unforgettable year for the GFG Alliance.

2019 has been a year of growth and transformation, GFG’s most profound year to date.

It hasn’t been without its challenges….this year we navigated the worst market conditions seen for over a decade in our industry but now finally as we end the year the market is in strong recovery and showing further promise.

These headwinds in 2019 motivated us to make changes and accelerate our quest to GREENSTEEL – a more viable model, economically and environmentally.

In our boldest step so far, in July we completed the acquisition of seven major steelworks in Europe and more than doubled our workforce.

This growth also provided the platform to consolidate all the steel and related assets into a single global entity and launch Liberty Steel Group, making it the 8th largest in the world outside China with over 18 million tonnes of steel products capacity globally.

Its formation will enable greater transparency and will allow us to communicate better with our stakeholders, also providing for increased governance and other benefits through economies of scale.

Our management team continues to take shape as we welcome new global leaders into our family this year. They will help us challenge mind sets, driving ongoing change and growth across our businesses.

This consolidation also provides an opportunity to present a united vibrant profitable and growing steel group with a solid purpose through CN30.

Through our taskforce CN30, we will lead the industry to a carbon-neutral future by using our GREENSTEEL strategy, which focuses on using renewable energy and electric arc furnaces to recycle scrap steel.

In 2019 we saw renewable energy became much more mainstream and we won solid endorsement of our renewal initiatives launched over the last few years. In the new year we will continue in this stead launching further revolutionary projects made possible by access to competitive renewable energy such as hydrogen and its application to GREENSTEEL.

Through our CN30 mission we are calling out a new ecological revolution which will be no less than the industrial or digital revolutions of the last century.

For GFG this evolution is about balance and transition. We will transform our plants to a carbon neutral future, we will be brave and swift, but also measured and balanced.

We have continued to live our values of change, family and sustainability throughout the businesses and geographies we operate

In Australia we saw the launch of InfraBuild as the market-leading construction and building solutions partner, and the successful launch of our first public bond despite significant headwinds. InfraBuild has started a great journey of transparency, continuous improvement and growth. The rest of our group will follow in these footsteps.

The Whyalla transformation is now finally underway with construction planned to start in the new year of our ground-breaking state of the art rail and sections mill supplied by Danieli and of Cultana, Australia’s largest solar farm.

In the UK the Brexit turmoil saw a rapid decline of UK industry which was already under pressure: from this low point we end the year with a strong new government with a mandate to rebuild our industry. We look forward to a new era of investment and growth for the UK industry.

In Europe, after completing the acquisition of the 7 steel plants, the last few months have been about integration and stabalisation, and formulation of significant investment plans to realise the potential of these plants taking them once again to a leadership position in their respective regions.

Our aluminium business in Europe also got a significant boost this year with the announcement of the Duffell acquisition expected to close in the new year, a world leading aluminium sheet business renowned for its prowess supplying the high end auto sector amongst others.

United States also saw a very volatile year in the steel market with sharp downfall in the middle of the year, and recovery again as the year came to a close. This period of turmoil motivated us to make significant inroads in transforming our businesses, placing us in a very strong position to take advantage of the recovery in the steel market now underway.

In 2019 we faced a bumpy start in India but again we end the year making real inroads and I’m confident India will become a strong part of GFG’s future growth plans.

More broadly, operations like the GFG Foundation, JAHAMA and Wyelands that we set up in the UK are growing and developing strong roots in other parts of the globe.

The GFG Foundation in UK recently celebrated the achievements of over 100 students at the ‘Geared up for STEM’ event at Caerleon School in Newport.

And in August we launched the foundation in Australia, welcoming Whyalla’s young people as our first Test Pilots for the program, with plans to grow this dramatically in the coming year.

We also celebrated the launch of our property arm, JAHAMA, in Australia, who will be looking for new and innovative ways to unlock and leverage our assets.

Given the momentous year we have had, to welcome all the new members of the GFG family and to say thank you to all our existing family, I have sent a small Christmas gift, the flame pin, for every employee within GFG. The flame is the symbol of our family, uniting us in our common quest across all our businesses, I hope you will wear it with pride as I do every day.

Christmas is a time to give and time to think of those in need. As I’m sure all of you around the world have been seeing in the news, Australia has been ravaged with unprecedented fires across the country affecting many of our businesses and many of our people in our communities. In response, we are launching a fire help fund in Australia which will aim to help to our local communities that are impacted. All GFG family are invited to contribute to this fund, I will personally match the funding we are able to raise as a group. We will shortly set up a website for this campaign.

There’s no doubt 2019 has been a challenging year for many of our businesses, impacted by many factors and global headwinds. However, while the road can be bumpy at times, we should take a moment to celebrate the incredible things that we have accomplished this year despite these conditions.

We have a powerful and unique mission, vision and set of guiding values that are designed for the long-term, I’m confident we will transform industry for the better, securing not only our future, but the future of generations to come.

I thank you all for believing in me. From me and my family, I wish each and every one of you a Merry Christmas and happy new year.