Liberty Tubular Solutions opens for business

Liberty House tells Kallanish that it has moved a step closer to creating what will be the industry’s first fully-integrated operation, from liquid steel through to finished product and market distribution. The steel and trading group was commenting following its acquisition last weekend of Caparo Tubular Solutions (CTS), based in the UK’s West Midlands (see Kallanish 30 November).

Liberty representatives formally moved into the CTS Oldbury headquarters plant early this week (1 December 2015) “… to join management and workers there in building a new future for the business,” Liberty says. The purchase of the business saves 333 jobs.

Liberty’s owners, the Gupta family, bought Caparo Tubular Solutions – now renamed Liberty Tubular Solutions – from administrators PwC only six weeks after restarting its own rolling mill at Newport, South Wales. This is already producing 50,000 tonnes/month of hot rolled coil for the UK market, Liberty says, based on imported slab. It intends eventually to begin melting domestic scrap with its EAF located on the same site.

Liberty House Group managing director Sanjeev Gupta says that, “… Tubular Solutions is a profitable and sustainable business and we are very excited about the future. There are many natural synergies between our hot rolled coil production and this design, manufacturing and distribution business.  By working together these operations can create an integrated and robust new business model that will create value and protect jobs for the long term.”

Gupta and Liberty have an undoubtedly upbeat view of the potential of the UK steel sector at a time when many other steel industry operators are naysayers, both in word and deed. The new business model and – more importantly, the new positivity – is just what the UK steel sector needs, Kallanish observes.

Kallanish