Steel trading and industrial group Trasteel has assumed control of Italian service centre Magona in Piombino, Tuscany, formerly owned by Liberty Steel, the company says.
The plant is now operated by Trasteel Magona, a new company established for the transaction, under a lease of Liberty Magona’s business unit. The lease started on 1 October and will remain in place run until no later than 31 December 2027. Afterward, Trasteel will assume full ownership of the business. Completion of the acquisition remains contingent on Liberty Magona’s restructuring. Liberty Magona has filed a restructuring plan with the Court of Florence that is awaiting approved.
The European Commission granted antitrust clearance on 29 September.
“With the start of the lease, Trasteel Magona will ensure the continuity of the plant’s operations, safeguarding approximately 500 jobs. Production will restart gradually, in line with a phased plan, with the objective of bringing the plant back to full operation and reaching a production capacity of over 500,000 tonnes/year by the end of 2027. Trasteel Magona will leverage the Group’s global sourcing, logistics and commercial platform to support continuity, reliability and quality of supply for the plant’s customers. The Piombino plant complements Trasteel’s Industrial Division, which comprises 13 companies in six countries and processes over 800,000t of steel products/year, including pipes, plates, coils and rebar,” Trasteel says in a note.
Workers have welcomed the development; a union source tells Kallanish. The new management promises a fresh start and a practical relaunch strategy, “different from Liberty’s void promises that brought us to almost bankruptcy. The problem now is integrating the market again, but we know the large company’s potential. In this last quarter we see a gradual restart of the production activity thanks to the incoming hot rolled coils with volumes that we believe will also gradually increase.”
Magona is returning to a market that has changed, the source adds. Coil prices are rising, European supply of hot dip galvanised and cold rolled coil is tight, and customers are increasingly expected to shift from imports back to European suppliers.
