Mittal may sell Weirton West Virginia plant

If forced to sell one of its US operations, Arcelor Mittal has stated its preference to dispose of the Weirton, West Virginia plant instead of the Sparrows Point plant in Maryland. US regulators will require Arcelor Mittal to sell one of its US plants if it cannot sell Canadian unit Dofasco to ThyssenKrupp AG. The US Department of Justice will decide which plant the company is to sell if the Dofasco sale does not go through. However, Arcelor Mittal has now stated that it would prefer to sell the Weirton plant in West Virginia. Any of these sales would alleviate US antitrust concerns arising out of the merger of Mittal and Arcelor. Dofasco, which was owned by Arcelor before the Mittal-Arcelor merger, is the first candidate for sale by Mittal – in spite of opposition from Arcelor. During the merger, Arcelor transferred its shares in Dofasco to a Dutch trust to prevent the resale of the company by Mittal. If Dofasco cannot be sold, the US Department of Justice will step in to decide on the sale of either Weirton or Sparrows Point.