Arcelor’s ongoing sell off procedure continues
The European steelmaker Arcelor, formed by the merger of Spanish Aceralia, French Usinor and Luxembourgean Arbed has been in the process of selling off its seven galvanizing plants as a condition set forth by the European Commission to allow such merger at that date. Upon completion of these sales market share of Arcelor for galvanized will be brought down to 35-40%. Such sales are scheduled to complete by the end of the fourth quarter of 2002. The aforementioned seven processing plants are;ISP Arvedi - hot dipped galvanized Galmed - hot dipped galvanized Lusosider - cold rolled, hot dipped galvanized, tinplate Segal - hot dipped galvanized Beautor - cold rolled and electro galvanized Dudelange - hot dipped galvanized Strasbourg - hot dipped galvanized and organic coatedAccording to reports from the industry, the interested parties in Arcelor's plants are Corus for the HDG unit Segal, Thyssen Krupp Stahl for the 74.5% stake in Galmed, Duferco for Strasbourg and Beautor to be sold as a package, USSK Kosice only for Strasbourg, Severstal for 50% stake at Lusosider.