Posted on 15 Nov 2018
Liberty House plans to invest €330 million ($373m) in its soon-to-be-acquired Galati steelworks in Romania over the next 3-5 years, and will study starting production of auto sheet to supply Romania-based carmakers.
The investments are likely to include the relaunch of one of Galati’s two idle blast furnaces. Also considered will be the restart of the other idle BF or installation of an electric arc furnace that would use scrap as feedstock. This is in line with Liberty’s 'Greensteel' strategy, a Liberty spokesperson confirms to Kallanish.
“We have the clear target of increasing annual output from 2 million tonnes of steel to 3 million, rebuilding a blast furnace and upgrading the rolling mills,” Liberty chairman Sanjeev Gupta told Romanian press. This would mean a production increase of 50%. “We are not just talking about increasing production, but we also want to modify it to develop higher-value-added products… to be processed in our downstream production facilities in Europe,” he added.
One proposal is to invest in improving hot-dip galvanized coil production to supply Ford’s carmaking plant in Craiova and Renault’s plant in Pitesti. “Romania has some key advantages in terms of the automotive industry… Being present in Europe and having a good cost base is a key opportunity,” Gupta explained. “Other countries in the region have already capitalised on this advantage, but Romania does not, but we intend to examine this.”
Liberty submitted last month a binding offer to acquire ArcelorMittal Galati, along with ArcelorMittal’s Ostrava, Skopje and Piombino plants (see Kallanish passim). Transaction closing is subject to EU approval and the conclusion of information consultations with local and European Works Councils.
Galati has a 3 million tonnes/year of crude steel production capacity allocated to plate, hot and cold rolled coil, and hot-dipped galvanized coil production at six facilities in Romania.
