Liberty to restart Georgetown mill next week

Liberty Steel plans to begin producing steel at its Georgetown, South Carolina, wire rod mill next week.

The London-based steelmaker, a subsidiary of metals group Liberty House, will host a recommissioning ceremony on 25 June to formally restart the electric arc furnace and rolling mill on the US east coast after being idled for nearly three years.

Georgetown's electric arc furnace has an annual capacity of 540,000t and is expected to consume around 30,000 gross tons/month of ferrous scrap. The wire rod rolling mill has an annual capacity of 680,000t.

Liberty purchased the mill from ArcelorMittal in December 2017 as part of its plan to develop 5mn t of steel production capacity in the US. ArcelorMittal cited the impact of "unfairly traded" imported steel in idling the plant in May 2015.

The company in May named Revansidha "Rohit" Gulve general manager of the mill. Gulve joined Liberty from Gerdau's former wire rod operation in Beaumont, Texas, which was sold to Optimus Steel in January.

Liberty House also acquired Tampa, Florida, scrap recycler Export Metals through its recycling subsidiary Liberty Recycling in March. The purchase was the first in what Liberty said will be an "extensive network" of scrap collection and processing facilities designed to support its steel manufacturing operations in the US.

GFG Alliance, Liberty House's parent company, last week appointed a chief investment officer to lead its plans to aggressively expand its US metals footprint.

London-based GFG Alliance operates companies in the energy generation, metal manufacturing, engineering, natural resources and financial services industries.