Liberty Steel assets face financing deadlines

Steelmaking assets under the control of the troubled GFG Alliance continue to face uncertain futures, with one Liberty Steel mill in Romania and others in the United Kingdom nearing deadlines that could help decide their fates.

A judge has granted the Liberty Steel blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace (BOF) mill in Galați, Romania, an extension until early August to reach a restructuring agreement with creditors.

According to the Ukraine-based GMK Center, that mill had been idle for several months before some equipment was restarted in early July. While that could be construed as a positive sign of life, the report also indicates the restart will increase the plant’s daily costs to more than $4.6 million, “putting additional pressure on its already unstable finances.”

The GMK report lists EximBank Romania and Romanian national tax authority the National Fiscal Administration Agency as the largest Liberty Galați creditors, with the latter proving unwilling so far to approve any Liberty restructuring proposals.

GMK also says management company Euro Insol has announced the termination of its contract with Liberty Galați and says the mill has growing debts of some $1 billion.

In the United Kingdom, collectors and processors of recycled steel will be watching what occurs this week when a liquidation deadline for Liberty Steel’s assets in the U.K., including the Speciality Steel UK (SSUK) EAF mill in Rotherham, England, is reached July 16.

A late May report by the Malaysia-based Lux Metal Group provides an overview of the lengthy financial and legal woes Liberty Steel and its parent company, GFG, have faced. Lux Metal also says the EAF mill in Rotherham and another in Dalzell, Scotland, is of “strategic importance” to the U.K. economy and defense sector.

A report Friday, July 11, from The Guardian indicates its U.K. government ministers are considering options to step in to save the SSUK mills in Rotherham and Sheffield, England.

The report by Kiran Stacey and Jasper Jolly of The Guardian indicates Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has not ruled out taking full control of the business, similar to what the U.K. government has done at the British Steel blast furnace/BOF complex in England.

Government intervention also has been used as a technique involving other GFG and Liberty assets, including earlier this year at a BOF mill in Australia. In France, the government played a leading role in prompting the sale of a former GFG aluminum production plant that subsequently benefited from a significant recycling-related reinvestment project.

In the United States, government intervention was unlikely, but Liberty’s track record has been little better.

The former Georgetown Steel mill in South Carolina, purchased by Liberty in 2017, is in the process of being dismantled and the land is up for sale for redevelopment. The company also owns a recycled-content EAF mill near Peoria, Illinois, that was idle for several months before restarting some operations this March, according to Fastmarkets.