The transaction boosts Liberty Group’s total rolling capacity to over 15 million tons a year. the Group has made a binding offer to buy ArcelorMittal’s major integrated works at Galati in Romania and Ostrava in the Czech Republic, along with rolling mills at Skopje in Macedonia and Piombino in Italy.
The deal is subject to approval by the European Commission and other local processes including the conclusion of information consultations with local and European Works Councils.
Adding these major steel hubs more than doubles Liberty’s global metal manufacturing capacity, which already includes a strong position in the UK as a steel and aluminium supplier to the automotive, aviation and specialist engineering sectors and in Australia supplying steel for building and infrastructure. The Group also makes steel in the USA for the automotive and other sectors.
Today’s announcement follows the recent roll-out of Liberty’s investment programme in France, where it has acquired the country’s last remaining aluminium wheel maker and agreed to purchase Europe’s largest aluminium smelter at Dunkerque; a deal expected to complete shortly.
Liberty secured preferred bidder status for the ArcelorMittal European plants against competition from other producers after the company put the profitable assets 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.
Following completion, Liberty intends to continue investing in the assets – which already have many leading-edge facilities – and aims to achieve greater competitiveness through low-carbon production and closer integration with added-value downstream manufacturing, as part of its GREENSTEEL strategy.
The four sites in the package have a combined rolling capacity of around 8 million tons a year and would give Liberty the ability to supply a full range of finished steels including; plate, hot rolled coil, cold rolled coil, galvanised 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 Galati (former Sidex Galati) is Romania’s largest integrated steel plant. It was bought by LNM Holdings NV in 2001 from the Romanian state, for EUR70 million. In 2004, it became part of Mittal Steel, a company created by the merger between LNM Holdings NV and Ispat International. Two years later, following the merger between Mittal Steel and Arcelor, Sidex became ArcelorMittal Galati.
Besides the unit in Galati, ArcelorMittal has five more operating facilities in Romania.