British-owned Liberty (www.libertyhousegroup.com) — part of Sanjeev Gupta’s global GFG Alliance — is set for another major expansion of its steel production capacity in continental Europe, following a conditional agreement to acquire three cold-rolling steel mills from Arcelor Mittal.

This relates to: the Flemalle and Tilleur sites, which employ a total of around 700 people near Liege (Belgium); and the Dudelange (Luxembourg) facility, which employs about 300 people. The three mills serve the construction, industrial and automotive markets; they have a combined annual production capacity of 2.1 million tonnes of cold-rolled steel, 2 million tonnes of galvanised steel, and 200,000 tonnes of tin-plated steel.

The announcement follows a statement in October that Liberty had reached conditional agreement with Arcelor Mittal to acquire works at Galati in Romania and Ostrava in the Czech Republic, along with mills at Skopje in Macedonia and Piombino in Italy.

Both deals are subject to approval by the European Commission and other local processes including the conclusion of information consultations with local and European Works Councils.

Referring to the plants in Belgium and Luxembourg, GFG Alliance executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta said: “These are high-quality landmark assets, with skilled and experienced workforces that we are looking forward to welcoming into the world-wide GFG fold.

“Our aim will be to develop close working relationships with the governments, trade unions and other local stakeholders in Belgium and Luxembourg, to optimise and improve the value of these historic assets, which are important for the regional and national economies.”

The three sites constitute the second part of a package of site sales that Arcelor Mittal agreed with EU competition regulators to clear the way for it to purchase Italian steel giant Ilva, which is Europe’s largest producer of
flat carbon steel.

Liberty has worked closely with Arcelor Mittal to prepare a deal that satisfies the demands of the EU Commission and creates a secure future for these businesses within the GFG Alliance.