British-owned Liberty, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s global GFG Alliance, has announced on October 12 that it has signed a conditional agreement with ArcelorMittal to buy four European steel plants, Galati in Romania and Ostrava in the Czech Republic, along with rolling mills at Skopje in Macedonia and Piombino in Italy, employing more than 12,500 people.
The deal which is subject to approval by the European Commission and other local processes will take Liberty’s total rolling capacity to over 15 million mt per year.
The four sites in the package have a combined rolling capacity of around 8 million mt per year and will give Liberty the ability to supply a full range of finished steels including; plate, hot rolled coil, cold rolled coil, galvanized sheet, tin plate, bar, wire rod, and rail. The plants serve domestic and wider European markets, including automotive, construction, industrial machinery and oil and gas sectors.
ArcelorMittal European plants were put up for sale as part of an agreement with EU competition regulators to clear the way for it to purchase Italian steel giant, Ilva, Europe’s largest producer of flat carbon steel.
Executive chairman of the GFG Alliance, Sanjeev Gupta, said: “I am delighted to announce this landmark transaction, our biggest milestone to date. At a stroke these acquisitions would almost double the size of our workforce and global production capacity, giving us a strong presence in the heart of Europe’s key manufacturing regions. We intend to work with local partners 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 the GFG Alliance.”