Troubled Romanian steelworks Liberty Galati has not found a buyer at the first international auction for the sale of the steel plant last week, Kallanish learns.
Although five investors purchased the specifications and analysed the offer, none submitted the necessary guarantee to participate in the auction, according to Romanian-based publication Informat.
The main reason for the lack of bidders is that the price of the assets is considered too high at approximately €720 million ($826.4m). According to Informat, the plant’s administrators say that investors are discouraged by the high operating costs for energy, gas, and CO2 certificates, as well as the age of the facilities.
It is understood that the plant could be put up for auction again but at a reduced price, estimated at €420-500m.
Liberty Galati and Euro Insol, the company’s bankruptcy administrator, did not reply to a request for comment by Kallanish at the time of publication.
Among those believed to have expressed interest are industrial groups from India, China, Turkey, Ukraine and Iraq, as well as the Romanian company UMB Grup.
Also, on the list of potential buyers are JSW Steel and Jindal Group from India, DeLong Steel from China, KMC Steel from Turkey, Galiawa Group from Iraq and Metinvest from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian group is already present in Romania, after its acquisition of the ArcelorMittal Tubular Products factory, which completed in December.
Liberty Galati has amended an earlier restructuring plan proposed by the two administrators, which was approved by the Galati County Court.
The plant has annual production capacity of around 2.5 million tonnes of steel for the construction, naval, oil and gas, and power generation sectors. It was acquired by Liberty Steel Group from ArcelorMittal in July 2019.
The plant entered into a preventive arrangement in March 2024, in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy. Since then, the plant’s activity has been severely affected.
Last summer, Liberty Galati resumed operations at its metallurgical plant following a pause of almost a year.
