Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty House Group has restarted commercial production at its Italy-based Liberty Magona pickling plant, post an initial investment of €5mn ($5.5mn).
Liberty Magona’s plant has a capacity to treat 1,000mt of raw coils per day, or 365,000mt annualised, with an ambition of ramping up to 2,500mt per day, or 912,500mt annually, once fully operational, said local media reports on Jan 20.
Previous owner ArcelorMittal idled the plant more than two years ago, given increased competition from relatively low-priced imports from overseas suppliers with lower production costs.
Liberty House Group acquired the Magona plant as part of €740mn multi-asset purchase deal with ArcelorMittal on July 1, 2019. Liberty Magona has a five-year supply agreement to source coils directly from ArcelorMittal. The company is also permitted to procure cost-competitive material from alternative suppliers as part of the agreement.
Liberty Magona’s facilities include: a pickling line, a cold rolling mill, three hot-dip galvanizing lines, two organic coating lines, and two cutting lines. The plant has a 700,000mt per year production capacity of galvanized and pre-painted steel, according to the company’s website.