Liberty’s Benelux mills continue to face supply issues

Liberty Steel has confirmed that some HRC supply issues are continuing this week at its Liège and Dudelange production sites. As a consequence, the market is witnessing a deceleration in deliveries of HDG from the mills, Kallanish understands.

“There are some intermittent production issues at one of our HRC suppliers, which are temporarily impacting deliveries to Liberty Liège-Dudelange. The team is working with all of our suppliers to mitigate the impact,” a spokesperson from Liberty Steel says.

Liberty Dudelange, in Luxembourg, is equipped with two HDG lines with the capacity of 620,000 tonnes/year and 2 electro-galvanizing lines with capacity of 360,000 t/y, of which 160,000 t/y are mothballed. The Tilleur site in Belgium can produce packaging steel with a capacity of 200,000 t/y, the Flemalle mill, also in Belgium is equipped with two HDG lines with the capacity of 950,000 t/y.

Last week Liberty Steel confirmed a $100m investment to improve the quality, performance and output of galvanised steel products at its Liege-Dudelange works, which will improve competitiveness, it says. Earlier last year the company’s ceo confirmed that the plan was to bring Dudelange’s HDG production close to full capacity.