Liberty restarts idled pickling line in Piombino

After having been idled for a number of years, the pickling line at the Italian La Magona plant in Piombino has been restarted, a union source tells Kallanish.

The new owner Liberty House has invested €5 million ($5.5m) to revamp the line and is also carrying out repair works on coating line no. 2 which is to be restarted later this year.

Liberty has purchased La Magona and a number of plants controlled by ArcelorMittal, put onto the market following the acquisition of Italian group Ilva by the latter. The plants include ArcelorMittal Ostrava (Czech Republic), ArcelorMittal Galati (Romania), ArcelorMittal Skopje (North Macedonia), , and ArcelorMittal Dudelange (Luxembourg) (see Kallanish passim).

La Magona has an agreement with ArcelorMittal for hot rolled coils sourcing. The Piombino plant is being supplied by the ArcelorMittal plant in Fos Sur Mer in France. However, the company will also source HRC from other European and third-country producers. The new management of Magona under ceo Giovanni Carpino intends to increase the plant production and sell mainly in the European market, the union source adds.