Metals Trader Announces Plans to Expand U.K. Mill
05/31/2016 - Metals executive Sanjeev Gupta and his firm, Liberty House, plan to nearly double the capacity of its Welsh rolling mill and add 2 million metric tons of liquid steelmaking capacity there, the firm announced on Tuesday.
Liberty reopened the former Mir Steel facility in 2015 and was on pace to produce about 600,000 metric tons of hot rolled coil from imported slab this year. The firm intends to boost the mill's output by installing recently acquired equipment from a shuttered facility located elsewhere.
That equipment includes a 115-metric-ton VAI Fuchs EO EBT electric arc furnace and a 800,000 metric ton rod and bar mill.
The expansion is part of a broader plan in which another company, SIMEC, will convert its adjacent coal-fired power plant to run on biomass. The plant is capable of generating 396 megawatts. SIMEC and Liberty House are part of the Gupta Family Group Alliance.
“Longer term, it will develop a center of excellence for renewable energy that includes various forms of green power, including waste-to-energy and tidal lagoon power in the adjacent estuary,” the companies said in a statement.
“All of this can provide low-cost, low-carbon fuel sources to power a steel industry, which, in turn, can be made more competitive and sustainable through recycling and upcycling of Britain’s growing mountain of scrap.”
Gupta said the project would serve as a springboard for the firm’s plans to manufacture “green” steel.
“If we can make steel competitively in the U.K., we can generate potentially hundreds of thousands of jobs in the manufacturing sector nationwide," he said.
Liberty House has been building a portfolio of steelmaking assets in the U.K. Aside from the rolling mill, it is reopening a shuttered pipe and tube mill, which it had acquired out of administration last year. And in April, Liberty closed on a deal to acquire two affiliated plate mills from Tata Steel.
Separately, it is bidding on Tata Steel’s U.K. business, which includes the integrated Port Talbot Works.
Tata had been hoping for a quick sale of the business, but may now be rethinking its plans altogether and might instead hold on to the business, according to a report. In the meantime, Tata is preparing to hand off its Scunthorpe steelworks, which is being acquired as part of the sale of its European long products business.
Private investment firm Greybull Capital is acquiring the business, and an announcement of the sale’s finalization is expected to come Wednesday.
That equipment includes a 115-metric-ton VAI Fuchs EO EBT electric arc furnace and a 800,000 metric ton rod and bar mill.
The expansion is part of a broader plan in which another company, SIMEC, will convert its adjacent coal-fired power plant to run on biomass. The plant is capable of generating 396 megawatts. SIMEC and Liberty House are part of the Gupta Family Group Alliance.
“Longer term, it will develop a center of excellence for renewable energy that includes various forms of green power, including waste-to-energy and tidal lagoon power in the adjacent estuary,” the companies said in a statement.
“All of this can provide low-cost, low-carbon fuel sources to power a steel industry, which, in turn, can be made more competitive and sustainable through recycling and upcycling of Britain’s growing mountain of scrap.”
Gupta said the project would serve as a springboard for the firm’s plans to manufacture “green” steel.
“If we can make steel competitively in the U.K., we can generate potentially hundreds of thousands of jobs in the manufacturing sector nationwide," he said.
Liberty House has been building a portfolio of steelmaking assets in the U.K. Aside from the rolling mill, it is reopening a shuttered pipe and tube mill, which it had acquired out of administration last year. And in April, Liberty closed on a deal to acquire two affiliated plate mills from Tata Steel.
Separately, it is bidding on Tata Steel’s U.K. business, which includes the integrated Port Talbot Works.
Tata had been hoping for a quick sale of the business, but may now be rethinking its plans altogether and might instead hold on to the business, according to a report. In the meantime, Tata is preparing to hand off its Scunthorpe steelworks, which is being acquired as part of the sale of its European long products business.
Private investment firm Greybull Capital is acquiring the business, and an announcement of the sale’s finalization is expected to come Wednesday.
