Hayange futures relies on Ascoval: sources

Three offers have been submitted to the French government for the Hayange rail mill owned by British Steel, Kallanish learns from union sources.

According to rumours unsubstantiated by the companies, ArcelorMittal, Germany’s Saarstahl and Greybull Capital entity Olympus Steel are in the run to buy the French rail mill. Hayange produces rail for the local national railway system SNCF. According a union source, the future of the company is strictly connected to the EAF-based steelmaking plant of Ascoval that has a sizable contract to supply Hayange with approximately 140,000 tonnes/year of bloom. Olympus Steel acquired Ascoval last year (see Kallanish passim).

Most of British Steel’s assets have been sold to Chinese steelmaker Jingye. The sale to Jingye includes the steelworks at Scunthorpe, mills in Teesside and Skinningrove, shares of FN Steel BV in the Netherlands and the TSP Engineering business based in Cumbria. Hayange, however, was left out of the sale.