UK investor may have interest in Canadian steelmaking assets

Media report says Liberty House interested in former U.S. Steel and Essar facilities in Canada.


A United Kingdom-based investor that formerly had expressed interest in Tata Steel’s U.K. mills is now reportedly inquiring about idled steel and iron facilities in Canada and the northern United States.

An online report from Canada-based SooToday, citing a report on the London-based Financial Times website, says London-based Liberty House Group “is pursuing deals” for the former Essar Algoma mill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, as well “the former Stelco mills in Hamilton and Nanticoke [Ontario, Canada].” Those mills have been most recently operated by United States Steel Corp., though managers and workers there have been attempting to split from the U.S.-based corporation.

The Financial Times report also indicates Liberty House is examining the iron-ore pellet plant under development by Essar in Minnesota in the northern United States (which filed for bankruptcy protection in July 2016), based on the prospect it could supply Canadian mills with iron ore.

Liberty House defines itself as “an international commodities and industrial business that delivers across the value chain through a sustainable circular model of operation—from recycled liquid steel produced with renewable energy, to downstream value added engineering products for the automotive, aerospace and defence industries.”

July 9, 2016, the company issued a statement expressing disappointment that India’s Tata Steel had dismissed the Liberty House bid for several of Tata’s U.K. steel mills in Wales and England, calling it “sad and frustrating news for the U.K. steel industry.”

Currently, the Liberty Steel Group subsidiary of Liberty House “is focused on the production and distribution of a wide range of steel products including hot rolled coil, structural hollow sections, specialist steel plates, spiral welded tube, rebar and long steel products,” according to the group’s website.

Among the facilities it currently operates are a hot-rolled coil steel mill in Newport, Wales, in the U.K., and it is working to restart two former Tata Steel plate mills in Scotland in the U.K. Liberty Steel Group also has steel trading offices in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Hong Kong; London; and Singapore.
 

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