Message from the Chairman 2020

Our Executive Chairman sets out the priorities for the year ahead and explains how we will develop three industrial pillars – LIBERTY, ALVANCE, and SIMEC – to help GFG Alliance move towards the carbon neutral by 2030 (CN30) target.

Check out the video message or read a transcript of Sanjeev’s message below.

Video transcript

Sanjeev:

Welcome everyone.

2020 for GFG is not only a new year, a new decade at the beginning of a new era. An era where we will lead our industry into a new future.

Last year in 2019 we saw perhaps the most difficult market conditions our industry has seen for a very long time. We are still weathering that storm, but looking ahead, there are some clear opportunities.

Steel and aluminum demand will more than double in the next 30 years. Energy prices continue to come down. These changes offer us a great opportunity to drive industry.

2019 was a year of growth. It saw our business more than double. In 2020, we will focus on consolidation, on an aggressive investment strategy, adopting in particular our CN30 strategy.

Last year I announced the consolidation of LIBERTY Steel Group. This means that all our steel companies globally will be now consolidated into one corporate entity with one year end, one set of auditors, one board, one governance structure, one strategy, one drive.

We also announced the creation of our aluminum vertical under the new brand ALVANCE. ALVANCE, similar to LIBERTY, will consolidate all our aluminum businesses globally into one business with one structure.

Next, we will consolidate all our energy businesses under SIMEC Energy. These three LIBERTY for steel, ALVANCE for aluminum and SIMEC for renewable energy will form our three industrial pillars. They will move away from being in the family office to being now global corporates. Family office will continue to house the rest of our businesses, including our financial services businesses, including JAHAMA, our property business and of course GFG Foundation will continue to support the rest of the activities of the group.

GFG’s evolution so far has been through inorganic growth. This will of course continue but this year we will also see the beginning of an investment program globally where we see opportunities arising.

In Britain for example, with scrap arisings said to triple in 10 million tonnes to 30 million tonnes by 2050 we see a bigger and bigger calling for our GREENSTEEL strategy. In Europe, we announced the end of our 100 day strategic review and an ambitious investment program across all our assets to take them into the future.

In the US with the recent acquisition of yet another Electric Arc Furnace we will pursue our 5 million tonnes GREENSTEEL strategy there more aggressively.

In India, we announced acquisition of our first steel asset.

In Australia our very exciting Whyalla Transformation plan will finally kick off. Construction will start shortly at our solar farm, Australia’s largest and the world’s most advanced integrated sections and rail rolling mill.

In France, we announced the establishment of our global headquarters for our aluminum pillar ALVANCE. This is the beginning of our ambition to become a global champion of clean aluminum.

CN30 will be transformational, not only for our business or for our entire industry. For us to be carbon neutral by 2030 comes with two strategies. The first is simply to double down on our longstanding GREENSTEEL strategy, which is recycling steel scrap with renewable energy where possible.

The other element sees us focus on primary steel production with new technologies without the use of carbon. The world still needs primary steel. Recycling by itself though fundamental, will not be enough, and hence our focus on development of such things as hydrogen and the use of hydrogen in steel will be key.

In 2020 to live by our values of change, family and sustainability is more important than ever. To recognise the importance of these values, I recently launched the global chairman’s awards.

These awards will look to seek out and celebrate those people who live these values on a daily basis.

I want to end by thanking you for your continued support and faith in me. These are turbulent times, but we have a great future ahead and at GFG we’ll build it together.

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