Norwegian steel startup company Blastr was understood to be the preferred bidder for the previously Liberty-owned Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), which includes sites at Rotherham and Stocksbridge, Fastmarkets heard on Thursday April 16.
UK industry representatives were hopeful that the chosen bidder will eventually restart steelmaking at the electric-arc furnace (EAF) unit in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, which has been largely dormant since 2024.
The UK government announced on Wednesday that “a period of exclusivity has been agreed with a preferred bidder, marking the next stage of a future sale agreement,” without disclosing the identity of the preferred bidder.
It was part of the UK government’s efforts to move SSUK back into private ownership, following its liquidation under previous owner Liberty Steel in August 2025 and subsequent entry into government receivership.
The process was expected to last around five weeks, during which the bidder would be expected to progress its bid, the UK government said.
A UK industry source confirmed on Thursday that Blastr was the preferred bidder for the unit, though he was unsure of the company’s plans at this stage.
The expectation was for the assets to be acquired with the intention of resuming steel production, he added, noting that alternative uses would be uneconomic given the nature and value of the facilities.
Norway’s Blastr was established in 2021 with the intention of becoming a low-carbon integrated steel producer.
The company has previously outlined plans to develop approximately 2.5 million tonnes per year of hot and cold rolled steel capacity through EAF production in Finland.
The company also said in 2023 that it was exploring plans for a UK direct reduction (DR) pelletizing facility in Teesside, northeastern England, to supply direct reduction iron feedstock to its planned steelmaking operations in Finland.
Major market participant
The business had been unable to continue steelmaking operations due to a lack of financial capital to procure raw materials such as ferrous scrap, the UK source said, although he added that equipment at the sites was ready to restart once funding conditions allowed.
Before its closure, it was one of the largest domestic scrap consuming companies alongside Tata Steel’s basic oxygen furnaces (BOFs) in Port Talbot and Celsa Steel’s EAF complex, both in Wales, the latter now owned by Sev.en Global Investments.
With Tata’s shuttering of its melting operations to make way for EAFs later in the decade, together with the idling of the Rotherham EAF, UK steel production and domestic scrap use slumped to new lows in 2024-25.
UK steel output fell to 2.50 million tonnes in 2025, down by 38% year on year, according to the World Steel Association.
Liberty Speciality Steel UK includes three mills. These are:
• Rotherham Steel & Bar, equipped with a 1.3 million tpy EAF, focused on production of speciality steel bars
• Brinsworth Narrow Strip, capable of producing 300,000 tpy of hot-rolled coil and a range of other grades; and
• Stocksbridge High Value Manufacturing, focused on production of merchant bar (500,000 tpy).
Hopes of restart
Industry bodies and trade unions welcomed the development. Trade body UK Steel said that the identification of a preferred bidder was a constructive step toward securing the future of the business.
“The announcement of a preferred bidder for SSUK is a positive move toward moving the company back into private ownership, securing the future of this vital national asset. We await further details with great interest,” Gareth Stace, director general of UK Steel, said on Thursday.
“This is an important moment and we hope that this milestone – following the government’s intervention last autumn – will help to end the long period of uncertainty which our members at SSUK have endured,” Roy Rickhuss, steelworker trade union Community’s general secretary, said on Wednesday.
Before its stoppage, SSUK was supplying high-grade speciality steel products to the defense and aerospace industries, supplying key customers such as Rolls-Royce and Airbus, according to market sources.
This made the unit highly important, given a renewed focus on defense spending in European political discourse following the outbreak of conflict in Ukraine and, more recently, in Iran and Lebanon.
“SSUK’s sites are vital strategic assets,” Rickhuss added, “and with the right plan in place, the business can have a bright future.”
