Support grows for Liberty’s re-acquisition of Liège assets

Over the next few days, Belgian authorities will decide the future of Liberty Steel’s Liège rolling assets currently for sale. There are three bids on the table, but support is growing for the one submitted by Liberty Galati to re-acquire all the assets and preserve the existing workforce.

As previously reported by Kallanish, other bids include one from ArcelorMittal – the former owner of the lines before their sale to Liberty – and one from Marcegaglia and NLMK in consortium.

This week, local trade unions CSC Metea and CNC confirmed their support for the bid presented by Liberty Galati. This is because it is the only bid involving all existing industrial assets and preserving all jobs at the sites.

The other bids only consider preserving a portion of the jobs and are directed at the hot-dip galvanizing lines in Flemalle, not the other rolling lines in Tilleur.

During a public meeting earlier this week, local authorities of the Walloon region expressed their support for the bid by Liberty Galati.

Liberty Steel’s Belgium-based assets include a series of lines for packaging steel located in Tilleur and two hot-dip galvanising lines located in Flemalle. The units can produce up to 1 million tonnes/year of hot-dip galvanized coil and 200,000 t/y of packaging products. They were acquired by Liberty from ArcelorMittal in 2019.

Emanuele Norsa Italy