UK-based Liberty Steel, a subsidiary of GFG Alliance, plans to restructure its subsidiary Liberty Liege-Dudelange’s two plants Flémalle and Tilleur to offer the best long-term future for the company, making it more likely that potential investment will be obtained to support this future, SteelOrbis learned.
According to a statement from a Liberty Steel Group spokesperson, the planned restructuring project has no impact on the Liberty Dudelange site in Luxembourg and Liberty Liège-Dudelange customers will continue to be supplied as normal throughout the process.
Liberty Steel is also rumored to cut jobs in Belgium and the galvanizing line at Flémalle plant would be most affected, while galvanizing line No. 4 at Flémalle plant is expected to be closed as it requires a big investment, according to the local media reports.
Meanwhile, GFG Alliance has provided more than €40 million of funding to Liberty Liege since its acquisition in July 2019, but its investment plans were initially undermined by a very weak steel market in 2019, before the business was negatively impacted by the pandemic. The situation was exacerbated by the collapse of its main lender Greensill in March 2021 and significant issues with its main hot rolled coil supplier, which impacted on the ability of the mills to operate at full capacity even when pandemic restrictions allowed.