UK to decide on Arcelor's acquisition of Corus' sheet piling business

UK to decide on Arcelor’s acquisition of Corus’ sheet piling business

The UK's anti-trust body, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), has referred the completion of Arcelor's acquisition of Corus UK Limited's hot-rolled steel sheet piling business to the Competition Commission (CC). As previously reported by SteelOrbis back in April of this year, Arcelor SA reached an agreement with Corus UK to acquire its UK sheet piling commercial operations. According to a statement released by OFT, the actualization of this merger, by reducing the number of major suppliers of hot rolled steel sheet piling in Europe from three to two, may result in a significant lessening of competition within the market for the supply of hot-rolled steel sheet piling in the UK. The CC is expected to release its decision by February 24 2005. Sheet piles are hot-rolled long carbon steel products mainly used in civil engineering.