European Commission approves Liberty acquisition of ArcelorMittal plants

The European Commission has given the green light for the acquisition by Liberty House of a number of ArcelorMittal’s European steelmaking assets, Kallanish learns from official company statements. As a consequence, Liberty will integrate most of its businesses in Europe, the UK and Australia under one entity.

The closing of the transaction is now expected to be done before the end of June this year. Following the closure, Liberty will become the third-largest steelmaker in Europe and one of the top ten steel producers outside China.

Liberty is set to buy a number of ArcelorMittal plants, put on the market following ArcelorMittal’s acquisition of Italy’s Ilva group. The plants include ArcelorMittal Ostrava (Czech Republic), ArcelorMittal Galati (Romania), ArcelorMittal Skopje (North Macedonia), ArcelorMittal Piombino (Italy), ArcelorMittal Dudelange (Luxembourg), hot-dip galvanizing lines 4-5 at ArcelorMittal Liège, and three lines located in Tilleur (Belgium).

In a separate transaction, Liberty is also set to purchase four flat product service centres from ArcelorMittal CLN Distribuzione Italia.

As it received the green light, Liberty also announced that it will integrate most of its steel engineering and mining business into a single entity. “The consolidated business will include all of the UK steel and engineering assets, the integrated Australian Liberty primary steelworks in Whyalla, a number of high-quality Australian iron ore and metallurgical coal mines, and, once completed, the seven European steel plants being acquired from ArcelorMittal,” Liberty says.

“This combination will form a global champion, with fully integrated capabilities, shipping iron ore and coking coal and semi-finished product from Australia to its manufacturing plants and mills globally with the target of becoming one of the largest and most competitive fully integrated steel and mining producers in the world, from raw materials to high value finished goods,” says Liberty chief Sanjeev Gupta.

Liberty produces steel and engineering components in the UK. In Australia the company is a leading producer of rail and structural steel, with plans to build a new manufacturing facility with a capacity of over 10 million tonnes/year. “The proposed European acquisition from ArcelorMittal will boost Liberty’s production capacity across a full range of flat and long products, setting the Liberty steel and mining group up for rapid growth,” the group explains.