UK-based global industrial leader GFG Alliance and its subsidiary Liberty Steel Group’s Restructuring and Transformation Committee (RTC) has updated the restructuring of GFG’s steel businesses to enable GFG to pay back creditors following the collapse of its main lender Greensill Capital. This in turn will allow GFG to refocus its business, protect jobs and further develop its remaining assets. The restructuring will support GFG’s progress in refinancing the group, which has been boosted by the strength of core assets and record steel, aluminium and iron ore prices.
Liberty Steel UK is continuing to assess a sales process for its UK aerospace and special alloys steel business in Stocksbridge. This sale will allow Liberty to focus on developing its Rotherham plant, including its low carbon emitting electric arc furnaces, into a competitive two million mt greensteel plant.
In Europe, the RTC is developing plans to merge its European downstream businesses, Liberty Liège-Dudelange and Italy-based Liberty Magona, into the Romania-based Liberty Galati organisation to optimise operational integration between the three plants. Under the restructuring Liberty Galati will become the primary supplier of HRC to Liberty’s downstream businesses, ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of their raw material. The initial stages of that restructuring program have already started, with the first supplies of HRC from Liberty Galati expected to arrive at the downstream plants within the next few weeks, allowing them to restart their lines soon afterwards.
In addition, the RTC continues to explore potential strategic partnership or sale options for the Cultana Solar Farm and Playford Battery projects in South Australia to expedite ways to power the Whyalla operations with low cost renewable energy, which is key to GFG’s future ambitions to scale up production and introduce hydrogen steel making.
As part of that process, the developments that GFG and the RTC have already achieved include signing a formal standstill agreement with regard to Liberty Primary Metals Australia, which will enable the business to complete full refinancing, submission of refinancing memoranda to interested parties for Liberty Steel Continental Europe, including major primary production hubs in Ostrava and Galati, and the development of new business plans, asset strategy and management structure for Liberty Steel UK.