LIBERTY Steel Group, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance, today announces that it has strengthened its European management team with the appointment of Renaud Moretti as CEO LIBERTY Downstream Synergies and Colin McGibbon as CEO LIBERTY France.
Both Renaud and Colin will report into Roland Junck, LIBERTY Steel’s President for the UK & Europe.
– No Motor Show last month. However the Duffel aluminium plant is running at full capacity to support the rapidly evolving automobile sector.
Even though the coronavirus pandemic is still hampering certain sectors of the economy, and the Brussels motor show is not taking place as a result, ALVANCE Aluminium is continuing to work on innovation and development of aluminium supply for the industry. The demand for lighter vehicles, vehicles with reduced emissions and fuel consumption, electric and autonomous driving vehicles is a trend that ALVANCE is closely monitoring in order to support its customers in this evolution.
Located in Belgium, ALVANCE Aluminium Duffel, (previously owned by Aleris), has over 30 years’ experience in the use of aluminium in the automotive sector and supplies major car manufacturers and suppliers around the world. Aluminium is used in car bonnets, doors, boot lids and wings, among other things. Thanks to the recent acquisition by the ALVANCE Aluminium Group, this factory can continue to invest in innovation and automation to deliver an even better, more tailored product. The use of aluminium in cars is increasing significantly. We are currently seeing an increase of 19% compared to 2016. By 2025, we will see an additional growth of 11% per car due to the fact that aluminium is light and therefore has a strong positive impact on reducing car emissions.
The huge increase in the number of electric cars that require the lightest possible battery housing will further increase the amount of aluminium per car.
Visit the ALVANCE Aluminium Group website to read the full media release.
LIBERTY Steel Group, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance, today announces that it has restarted the Huta Częstochowa electric arc furnace (EAF) in another significant step in LIBERTY’s ambitious plans to revitalise the plant.
The Huta’s EAF has been idled since October 2020 and to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the restart the plant’s team have ensured each step has been carefully managed. The first melt was done more slowly than normal before the steel produced was processed through the Ladle Furnace and Caster to produce slabs (flat, rectangular semi-finished steel products).
LIBERTY took over the lease on Huta Częstochowa at the end of December and restarted the plant’s rolling mills last week using steel from LIBERTY Ostrava in the Czech Republic.
Read the full media release on the LIBERTY Steel Group website.
LIBERTY Steel Group, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance, today announces that it has taken over the lease for Huta Częstochowa, one of Poland’s largest steel mills.
The restart of production has already taken place with the first plates having been rolled by the plant’s mill, using steel from LIBERTY Ostrava.
Corween Investments (to be renamed LIBERTY Częstochowa) has taken on the plant’s lease from the plant’s Administrator until mid 2021.
LIBERTY is also taking an active role in the plant’s acquisition, based on the sales process determined by the Court.
LIBERTY believes the addition of the Huta Częstochowa, which has the capacity to produce up to 0.7 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of GREENSTEEL from its electric arc furnace and 1.2 mtpa from its Heavy Plate Mill, will give it the opportunity to strengthen its position in the European GREENSTEEL sector.
The plant will also benefit from synergies due to its geographic proximity to LIBERTY’s existing assets, particularly LIBERTY Ostrava in the Czech Republic, and the strength of LIBERTY’s sales, marketing and distribution teams across Europe.
Read the full media release on the LIBERTY Steel Group website.
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LIBERTY France, the French subsidiary of LIBERTY Steel Group, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance, and SNCF Réseau today announced the safe and rapid approval for the deployment of Europe’s first GREENSTEEL rails on the French rail network.
This significant step demonstrates SNCF Réseau’s contribution to the establishment of a French “green rail” industrial sector to fully integrate the country’s railway infrastructure into a circular economy. The approval also marks the first step in achieving LIBERTY’s ambition for the recently-acquired LIBERTY Ascoval and LIBERTY Rail Hayange (previously France Rail Industry), which is to build a world class GREENSTEEL rail and rail services business with international reach.
The key focus for LIBERTY’s acquisition was to connect Ascoval with the Hayange rail mill so that together they become the leader in the provision of GREENSTEEL rails. This circular economy concept would see LIBERTY Ascoval melting recycled scrap steel, including recovered scrap rail from Hayange’s customers, in its electric arc furnace to produce large rectangular GREENSTEEL “blooms” which could then be rolled into rails at LIBERTY Rail Hayange.
This innovation was achieved shortly after the acquisition of LIBERTY Ascoval when its new modified caster line cast its first square “billet”. The €17 million modification, which was delivered on time and to budget despite COVID-19 complications, meant the high quality steelmaking equipment at Ascoval could be deployed to produce a new range of cross-sections, including blooms and billets, suitable for rolling into rails and other steel products in new markets. Due to these new products and a range of new customers, Ascoval is now running at higher capacity, with the strong prospect of adding more jobs in early 2021 as the plant expands its production.
The rail production specialists at Hayange worked closely with those from SNCF Réseau to manufacture a range of GREENSTEEL rails which will be used across the French railway network. This new production process reduces CO2 emissions by 90% with the traditional processes used in Europe for the production of rail steels. This environmental performance is mainly made possible by the use of the electric arc process, rather than the use of traditional blast furnaces. The manufacturing method of GREENSTEEL rails emits 180 kg of CO2 per tonne of steel compared to 1.8 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel using conventional blast furnaces. The goal is to make the rails completely carbon neutral by 2030, in line with the GFG Alliance’s mission to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.
SNCF Réseau has carried out a comprehensive range of homologation tests on this new range of rails as well as a full audit of the LIBERTY Ascoval site. Once that homologation testing and audit work was completed, SNCF Réseau approved the use of the new GREENSTEEL rails across its French network. LIBERTY now expects to start developing a sustainable GREENSTEEL rail market, initially in France and then more widely across Europe, as rail operators make the transition to carbon neutral networks.
Commenting on the news, Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman of GFG Alliance and LIBERTY Steel Group, said: “Today is a great step forwards for LIBERTY Steel’s ambitions in France. Our vision is to build a world class rail and rail services business with international reach, based on our GREENSTEEL model, and it is excellent to see that vision starting to be realised. Together these two strategic plants have already started to create a truly integrated value chain which provides the platform for further GREENSTEEL rail production in France and across Europe.”
Read the full media release on the LIBERTY Steel Group website.
At LIBERTY Ostrava today Sanjeev Gupta, the Executive Chairman of LIBERTY Steel Group, has launched the public tender process for LIBERTY Ostrava’s new hybrid furnaces. This is a major step in Ostrava’s journey of transformation towards new low carbon technologies in line with LIBERTY Steel Group’s overall target to become carbon neutral by 2030.
The tender process is part of LIBERTY Ostrava’s ambitious investment plan to transform its steel-making operations through the use of two hybrid furnaces, the first of their kind in Europe. The modern hybrid technology will have a significantly lower environmental footprint, reducing particulate emissions by 60% by 2023 due to a new dedusting plant. Once the 400kV electricity line is installed by 2025, carbon emissions will be reduced by 50% as the furnaces will be able to use 70% scrap. Full carbon neutrality will be achieved once the plant has transitioned to using 100% scrap or captures and recycles the CO2 from its primary units while offsetting residual carbon produced through GFG’s peat restoration project at JAHAMA Highland Estates in Scotland.
The two hybrid furnaces will replace the plant’s existing four tandem furnaces by 2023. The new hybrid steel-making technology will allow the business to; use higher volumes of abundant local steel scrap, reducing its reliance on imported coal and iron ore; produce significantly lower CO2 emissions; and have greater flexibility to respond to changing market situations, by enabling it to switch between or blend coal based blast furnace and scrap based electric arc furnace produced steel.
LIBERTY Steel US, part of sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance, has appointed Michael C. Raabe, CSP, as Chief Safety Officer as it implements an organisation-wide safety-first program.
In a career which began with Alcoa Inc. and has included aluminium smelting, forging, casting, rolling and recycling operations Michael has designed, launched, managed and audited safety systems that reduced operational risk, prevented injuries and engaged the workforce. He has wide-ranging experience in safety across industry and consulting.
The appointment follows LIBERTY Steel US’s creation of a new quarterly safety council in August. GFG Alliance has launched a wide-ranging initiative Be GFG Safe, to prevent critical incidents, support an interdependent safety culture and enable performance across its businesses.
Go to the LIBERTY Steel Group website for the the full media release
Sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance has appointed Premal Desai as its new Group Chief Operating Officer (COO – Business Development), starting January 1, 2021. Alongside the oversight and expansion of GFG Alliance’s global footprint, Premal Desai will focus on the sustainable transformation journey of the Group.
Premal Desai has extensive experience in the European industry – most notably in strategy, finance, operations and transformation. After 10 years at Boston Consulting Group he held several leadership positions at thyssenkrupp AG from 2006 to 2020, most recently as CFO and Executive Chairman of thyssenkrupp Steel.
GFG Alliance’s Executive Chairman Sanjeev Gupta said: “We are delighted to welcome Premal to our worldwide GFG family. With his many years of experience in senior positions across our sectors, Premal is ideally qualified to fill the role as COO – Business Development, for our global group. His expertise and passion especially about sustainability and digital transformation will allow us to further expand and improve our businesses.”
Premal Desai said: “I am excited to join Sanjeev and the GFG Alliance team. I have observed the continued success of GFG Alliance in transforming a challenged sector to create long-term economic, social and environmental sustainability. I look forward to contributing to the green journey of GFG.
Further information from:
Andrew Mitchell Head of Communications – UK, GFG Alliance
+44 (0) 7516 029 522
andrew.mitchell@gfgalliance.com
Patrick Toyne-Sewell Head of Communications – Europe, GFG Alliance
+44 (0) 7767 498 195
Patrick.toyne-sewell@gfgalliance.com
Note to the editors:
GFG Alliance is a collection of global businesses and investments owned by Sanjeev Gupta and his family. The Alliance is structured into three core industrial pillars; LIBERTY Steel Group, ALVANCE Aluminium Group and SIMEC Energy Group, independent of each other yet united through shared values and a purpose to create a sustainable future for industry and society. GFG Alliance employs 35,000 people, across 10 countries and has revenues of USD $20bn. GFG Alliance is a leader in sustainable industry with a mission to become Carbon Neutral by 2030 (CN30).
LIBERTY Steel Group, part of sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance, has today announced that it has made a non-binding indicative offer (NBIO) as part of a thyssenkrupp-led process to acquire the steel activities of thyssenkrupp.
With both transformation experience and an entrepreneurial approach, a possible combination of LIBERTY Steel and thyssenkrupp Steel would create a strong group well positioned to tackle the challenges faced by the European steel industry and accelerate the transformation to GREENSTEEL.
LIBERTY Steel is convinced that a combination with thyssenkrupp Steel Europe can be the right answer from an economic, social, and environmental perspective.
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Sustainable industry leader GFG Alliance today announced the launch of a Global Advisory Board whose world-leading industry experience and insight will guide the company in delivering its strategic priorities and achieving best practice in Environment, Social and Governance, particularly towards its Carbon Neutral 2030 target.
GFG Alliance has appointed the board following the consolidation of its businesses into three industry brands; LIBERTY Steel Group, ALVANCE Aluminium Group and SIMEC Energy Group, as it continues its drive to improve governance, transparency and independent advisory structures across the group.
GFG is pleased to announce that it has attracted 17 experts across industry, politics, economics and law, who will help shape GFG Alliance’s strategy to transform industrial manufacturing and become carbon neutral by 2030 (CN30).
The board will be divided into five regional sub-groups – reflecting GFG Alliance’s key markets in Australia, India, continental Europe, the UK and the Americas – which will meet four times a year. The full board will meet every year under the Presidency of Mark Elborne, former CEO and President, GE UK and Ireland, and hold informal group discussions each month.
Sanjeev Gupta, GFG Alliance’s Executive Chairman, said:
“The Global Advisory Board’s depth and breadth of expertise will be enormously valuable to GFG Alliance’s future by providing independent strategic advice and guidance particularly as we reinforce our commitment to Environment, Social and Governance and continue to improve transparency across the group.
“We’re delighted to have made a great start in securing high-quality members who will guide us on best practice and in meeting our industry-leading target of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. We will be building out the Board’s expertise further and look forward to welcoming new members.”
Mark Elborne, President of the Global Advisory Board, said:
“GFG Alliance’s vision of modernising manufacturing processes with low carbon technologies and renewable power is enormously exciting. The members of the Global Advisory Board are committed to help the company set a strong ESG framework, deliver on its strategic goals, and achieve its ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030.”
Global Advisory Board members:
| Region | Name | Experience & Accomplishments |
|---|---|---|
| UK | Mark Elborne (President of Board) | Former President and CEO, GE UK and Ireland after being Corporate General Counsel, GE EMEA and a senior partner at CMS Cameron McKenna. |
| UK | Jon Bolton | Former Chairman of UK Steel and senior leader at British Steel, Corus, Tata Steel and Liberty Steel. |
| UK | Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton | UK Member of Parliament for 14 years including Government roles as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury and Minister of State for the Armed Forces. |
| UK | Carwyn Jones | Former First Minister of Wales and Leader of the Welsh Labour Party. |
| UK | Alexander Downer | Former Australian High Commissioner to the UK and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs. |
| EU | Anne Lange | Senior executive at Cisco before co-founding software start-up Mentis in 2014. Sits on the board of Orange, Pernod-Ricard, Inditex and FFP. |
| EU | Henri Proglio | Former Chairman and CEO of EDF, Veolia Environnement and Compagnie Générales d’Entreprises Automobiles. |
| EU | Sigieri Diaz della Vittoria Pallavicini | Chief investment officer of Rottapharm since 2004 and has held executive roles across the pharmaceutical and finance sectors. |
| EU | Cristian Colteanu | Formerly GE’s President & CEO for Romania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova, and prior to that Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Romania’s Ambassador to Italy and Malta. |
| EU | Peter Stracar | Most recently President and CEO, GE Europe, following senior roles at Hilti Group. |
| Americas | Michael Setterdahl | Among several board memberships across the steel industry, he was Managing Director of international steel trading company Novosteel SA before becoming the sole owner from 2000 until 2007. |
| Americas | Ray LaHood | Extensive career in US politics, serving in the House of Representatives and as Secretary of Transportation. |
| Australia | Ray Horsburgh | Chairman of three ASX-listed companies, with deep steel industry experience. Awarded Order of Australia for his service to the steel industry. |
| Australia | Simon McKeon | Former Executive Chairman, Macquarie Group (Melbourne office) and Chairman/President of several Federal Government bodies. |
| Australia | Michael Morley | Led GFG Alliance in Australia and served as senior vice-president in Nyrstar. |
| Australia | Professor Ross Garnaut | Professorial Research Fellow in Economics at the University of Melbourne. Chairman of Sunshot Energy and Director of ZEN Energy. |
| India | S J Mukhopadhaya | Former justice of the Supreme Court of India, Chief Justice of the High Court of Gujarat and most recently first chairperson of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal. |
