Liberty completes acquisition of ArcelorMittal’s European assets

Monday, 01 July 2019 11:09:15 (GMT+3)   |   Istanbul
       

GFG Alliance’s subsidiary Liberty Steel has announced that it has completed the acquisition of seven major steelworks and five service centers across seven European countries from ArcelorMittal.

The €740 million deal makes Liberty Steel one of the top ten producers globally, excluding China, with a total rolling capacity in excess of 18 million mt covering a wide range of finished products. These seven sites employ over 14,000 people and include the major integrated steel works at Ostrava in the Czech Republic and Galaţi in Romania as well as rolling mills at Skopje (North Macedonia), Piombino (Italy), Dudelange (Luxembourg) and two plants near Liege in Belgium. The service centers are based in France and Italy.

“These businesses will form a key part of our global steel strategy, of building a sustainable steel business, with a fully integrated value chain, from raw materials to high-value finished products that are distributed in high quality markets,” Sanjeev Gupta, GFG executive chairman, said.

According to Liberty’s statement, these operations, with a combined rolling capacity of over 10 million mt per year, supply steel to multiple sectors across Europe’s industrial heartlands, including construction and infrastructure products, automotive, aerospace, energy, industrial equipment, consumer products and yellow goods. Liberty Steel said that it aims to boost sales from these sites by around 50 percent over the next three years. In the medium term the company will explore opportunities to produce higher-quality steels with a more flexible production profile.