UK and Nigeria-based Gupta family (brothers Raj, Sanjeev and Alok), which controls London-headquartered steel trading company Liberty Commodities Ltd, intends to build a new steel production facility in the southern Romanian city of Oltenita, Calarasi County, which is scheduled to be commissioned in 2011 with a total project cost of €150million.
In 2007, the family acquired the Oltenita-located Turol casting house for €16 million through its Romanian arm, Transdanube Industries SRL (Transdanube). The steelworks will be realized in two phases: the construction of a melt shop and of a rolling shop. As of 2011, the new facility is planned to have an annual production capacity of 500,000 mt of billet rolled into long products.
Currently, Transdanube is investing in high-end equipment, to be supplied by a reputable plantmaker, in order to completely modernize the old Turol casting house, and is preparing the new production facility, which will be built on approximately 15 hectares of land belonging to the company.
Transdanube anticipates that half of the Oltenita plant's products will be sold in the Romanian domestic market, while the rest will be exported to the EU, North Africa and the Middle East. The company estimates a turnover of €300 million at the plant after production starts in 2011.
In the Romanian market, the new plant will be competing with the Russian steel producer Mechel, the Romanian pipe producer Tenaris Silcotub, a member of Silcotub Group, and also with ArcelorMittal Galati.
Liberty Commodities already has steel mills and projects in Nigeria, Sudan, Morocco and India, with a production capacity of one million mt of steel. This figure is expected to reach three million mt by 2012.