Wednesday 17 April 2019

EU approves sale of ArcelorMittal’s steel assets to Liberty House

The European Commission has approved the sale of several ArcelorMittal steel plants to Liberty House Group in order to buy Italian steelmaker Ilva.

It follows the green light for the acquisition of Ilva by ArcelorMittal last May, subject to the latter company selling a “large package” of steel assets to a suitable purchaser to address the Commission’s concerns regarding effective competition in European hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanised flat carbon steel markets.

Hot-rolled flat steel is used in gas containers, pressure vessels, energy pipelines, tubes and shipbuilding.

The assets the steel manufacturing corporation chose to divest consists of a number of production sites across Europe, including integrated steelworks in Romania and Czechia as well as finishing plants in Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and North Macedonia.

Other assets, including all of the CO2 emission rights associated with the plants, are also included in the transaction.

The Commission said there were no competition concerns as there was are only limited overlaps between the activities of Liberty House and the steel plants acquired.

British Steel is currently in talks with the UK Government to secure a £100 million loan to meet EU emission rules amid the Brexit uncertainty.