Stepping up our Europe steelmaking plans

Liberty’s European steel acquisitions are set to double the Group’s global production capacity.

Earlier this year, our Liberty business announced plans to expand the Group’s European steelmaking operation with a conditional agreement to buy seven of steel giant Arcelor Mittal’s plants in Europe.

Subject to approval by the European Commission, if passed these acquisitions would more than double our overall steel production and add over 13,000 people to our workforce.

The sites include integrated steelworks at Galati in Romania and Ostrava in the Czech Republic, rolling mills at Skopje in Macedonia and Piombino in Italy, two Belgium cold rolling steel mills in Flemalle and Tilleur, and one in Dudelange, Luxembourg.

Our Executive Chairman, Sanjeev Gupta, commented,

At a stroke, these acquisitions would almost double the size of our workforce and global production capacity, giving us a powerful presence in the heart of Europe’s key manufacturing regions and cementing our role in the global steel industry.

The facilities at these plants are leading-edge and would enable us to supply a much broader scope of finished steels, greatly strengthening our offering into growing sectors across Europe, such as automotive, construction, industrial machinery and oil & gas.

Liberty secured preferred bidder status with Arcelor Mittal following on from a ruling of the EU competition regulators relating to their decision to acquire Italian steel giant, Ilva, Europe’s largest producer of flat carbon steel. Liberty has worked closely with the seller to prepare a transaction that satisfies the demands of the EU Commission and creates a secure future for these businesses within the GFG Alliance.

Sanjeev continued,

In the next few months, Liberty will work closely with the local teams, their customers, suppliers, trade unions and local governments to develop detailed plans for integrating and growing the business, including potential investment into improved competitiveness from low-carbon production and closer integration with added-value downstream manufacturing.

We intend to position ourselves strongly within the domestic supply chains of these fast-expanding national economies and become a pivotal part of a thriving European industrial sector. These are high-quality assets with highly-skilled staff whom we’re looking forward to welcoming into Liberty and the wider GFG Alliance.