India’s biggest steelmaker JSW Steel could make a bid for ArcelorMittal’s Galati plant in Romania, potentially competing against Ukraine’s Metinvest and Italy’s Marcegaglia, according to sources cited by Reuters.
ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, has had to put six European assets up for sale to get approval from European Commission for its purchase of Italy’s giant Ilva plant.
ArcelorMittal’s steel plant in Galati is Romania’s biggest steel plant, with around 5,600 employees, and is the largest of the six assets.
According to the European Commission, ArcelorMittal has agreed to provide an undisclosed amount of financing to the buyer of Galati to ensure that its steel output grows and the plant remains viable and competitive.
JSW, which wants to expand its steelmaking capacity outside India by 10 million tonnes per year, also declined to comment.
Marcegaglia and Metinvest were planning a joint bid for the plant but a Metinvest spokesman told Reuters the steelmaker would be bidding alone.
Galati has crude steelmaking capacity of 3.4 million tonnes per year and rolling capacity of 6.2 million tonnes.