Former Liberty UK mills eyed by 3 suitors

At least three companies reportedly have expressed an interest in purchasing the Speciality Steels UK (SSUK) facilities formerly operated by the Liberty Steel business unit of the GFG Alliance.

The SSUK assets, which include a recycled-content electric arc furnace (EAF) mill in Rotherham, England, have been in the hands of a court-appointed receiver since last August. 

As with many facilities that comprised the United Kingdom-based GFG Alliance, the SSUK operations were beset by unpaid bills and cash flow issues experienced by GFG companies since the 2021 collapse of Greensill Capital.

According to London-based Sky News, Norway-based Blastr Green Steel is the latest company to have contacted the “Official Receiver about a deal to buy SSUK,” joining two others it says had expressed an earlier interest.

“Blastr joins rival bidders including Arabian Gulf Steel Industries (AGSI), which is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and 7 Steel UK, [which] last year bought the Allied Steel and Wire site in Cardiff, Wales, from Spanish firm Celsa,” writes the media outlet.

Sky News says AGSI has attempted to secure financial backing from Britain's National Wealth Fund to help ensure steelmaking resumes at the sites.

The media group says its sources indicate “a decision about a preferred bidder could be made within weeks, although they cautioned that it was plausible that none of the shortlisted suitors might be able to strike a satisfactory deal.”

The report describes SSUK as employing more than 1,000 people when its sites are operational.

Czech Republic-based based Sev.en Global Investments already has a presence in the EAF steelmaking sector with its mill in Wales operating as 7 Steel UK and facilities in Scandinavia operating as 7 Steel Nordic.

Blastr, while based in Norway, is led by Mark Bula, who has more than three decades of experience in the American EAF steel sector at Nucor and Big River Steel, which now is part of United States Steel and Nippon Steel Corp.

Sky News says Blastr is working with New York-based investment bank Evercore Inc. on its bid to acquire the SSUK facilities. Evercore also has also been engaged by the U.K. government to advise on its overall strategy for the steel industry, according to Sky.

In a Feb. 19 article, Mark Kleinman of Sky News says the news network has learned Blastr “is understood to have drawn up plans to move its holding company from Norway to the U.K.,” possibly tied to a successful bid for SSUK’s plants.

So far this decade, Blastr has been focused on building a 2.5 million tons per year EAF mill in Inkoo, Finland, that would be accompanied by a “green hydrogen”-powered direct reduced iron (DRI) production plant.

Green hydrogen remains largely untested as a source of large-scale industrial facility energy. A March 2025 report issued by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that “green hydrogen production remains below 100,000 metric tons, which is slightly more than 0.1 percent of total [global hydrogen energy] production.”

Kleinman reports GFG board chair Sanjeeve Gupta is working with U.S.-backed investment bank Blackrock on a bid to retain the mills, “although the prospect of him being chosen to repurchase the business appears to be extremely remote.”