Liberty outlines its growth plans for Galati steelworks to trade unions and Romanian Government

Following the announcement of Liberty House’s binding offer to acquire the Galati Steelworks in Romania from ArcelorMittal, Jon Bolton CEO for Liberty Steel met with Viorel Stefan the Vice Prime Minister on Thursday, 25^th October, in Bucharest.

A team from Liberty House had spent the day meeting with the leadership team and trade union representatives at Galati describing plans to grow production output from Galati by 1 million tonnes by the year 2021/2022 and their intention to invest in the primary and rolling facilities at the plant.

The company had the potential to further grow output from the plant but also to invest in education, research and design as well as exploring the potential for manufacturing new high value steel products.

Liberty Steel currently manufactures products that could be added to the Galati offering and support the current Romanian development plans. These include oil and gas pipelines, rail and speciality steels that Liberty supplies to the aerospace and defence industries.

In addition, the potential to engage with the wider interests of the GFG alliance were explored. These include financial services, energy and infrastructure and property. The role of the GFG Foundation in encouraging and supporting the promotion of industrial careers to young people was also discussed

The completing of the acquisition of the divestment package (comprising Ostrava, Galati, Skopje and Piombino) is subject to the completion of AM’s acquisition of Ilva, and conditional on EU approval and the conclusion of information consultations with local and European Works Councils.

Liberty is part of the GFG Alliance; a global group of energy, mining, metals, engineering, logistics and financial services businesses, headquartered in London, with additional hubs in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Paris and New York and a presence in around 30 countries worldwide.

The Alliance, which has a global workforce of around 14,000 people and a turnover exceeding USD 15 billion, comprises integrated industrials and metals businesses under the Liberty banner.