ArcelorMittal largest creditor of Liberty Liege

Europe's largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal is the biggest creditor of Liberty Steel's Liege business in Belgium, according to internal documentation obtained by Argus.

Liberty's Liege unit is under creditor protection after the company requested a judicial reorganisation procedure for the Belgian plants, comprising Flemalle and Tilluer, on 27 April.

ArcelorMittal Flat Carbon Europe is owed €43.77mn by the business, according to a creditor list. Liberty acquired Liege-Dudelange, alongside other former ArcelorMittal assets, as the latter had to divest some facilities enabling it to purchase the Ilva steelworks in Taranto, Italy, in 2018. Lender Greensill funded the purchase of the assets, known within Liberty as "Project Delta" — Greensill provided more than $2bn, while the facilities cost Liberty in the region of $700mn.

As part of the deal, it was agreed that ArcelorMittal would supply the re-rolling lines with hot-rolled coil substrate. But the supply has not been seamless for some time because of issues between the companies. Liberty has recently stopped asking for coil from ArcelorMittal amid all-time high steel prices, market participants said.

The next two largest creditors to Liege are both units of Liberty — the sister Dudelange plant in Luxembourg is owed just over €11mn, while Liberty's Romanian steelworks Galati is owed €10.7mn. Market participants suggested that Dudelange was also under some form of creditor protection, but this is not the case, Liberty said.

Buyers have been told they need to supply Dudelange with hot-rolled coil if they want to secure hot-dip galvanised coil, as the mill does not have sufficient substrate.

Buyers have also been told that the Liege facilities will be split into two different corporate entities, with the two HDG lines at Flemalle becoming one entity, and the Tilleur packaging, pickling and cold-rolled lines put into another.

Liberty's Magona line in Italy will stop all production in June because of a lack of substrate, as reported.

ArcelorMittal refused to comment.

Meanwhile, Liberty said today that it would be selling its Stocksbridge speciality business to help with the restructuring and refinancing of its UK business. Liberty said the unit, which has suffered heavily during the pandemic, was not core to its "vision of decarbonised green steel".

By Colin Richardson