A Turkish steel company is a potential buyer of Liberty Steel Dudelange

The bankrupt Liberty Steel Dudelange steel plant in Luxembourg has found a potential buyer, Kallanish reports, citing informed sources.

The asset manager has informed the trade unions that an agreement has been reached with the new owner, which, according to preliminary information, is a Turkish steel company.

Tosyali, which has previously expressed interest in acquiring European steel companies, could be a possible buyer. The company seeks to supply semi-finished products for further processing instead of competing with European rolled steel producers.

The Luxembourg government is interested in maximizing the financial recovery of the company and covering Liberty Steel’s debts, as it is one of the creditors of employee-related expenses. The land will remain in state ownership, and the new owner will be entitled to a concession.

The plant will be sold rather than transferred without compensation. The plant has been maintained in good working order thanks to the efforts of the staff, and the equipment remains modern. Production tests conducted in July 2024 confirmed the equipment’s performance.

Once the formalities are completed, production can resume quickly with minimal bureaucratic hurdles. The choice of the buyer must be approved by the judge in charge of the sale procedure, after which the government will finally approve the deal.

The company currently employs about 140 people, but has been idle for more than two years. The Luxembourg Commercial Tribunal declared the plant bankrupt in December 2024. In addition to Dudelange, Liberty Steel plans to sell Magona in Italy and Liege in Belgium. The total rolling capacity of these three plants exceeds 2.5 million tons per year. Magona resumed operations after purchasing raw materials, while Liege is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Liberty Galati, a Romanian steel plant, is also in a crisis situation due to protracted financial problems. Eight months have passed since the last blast furnace was shut down, but the company’s management has not yet explained the prospects for its restoration.

Recently, the insolvency administrator of the bankrupt Czech steelmaker Liberty Ostrava put the company up for sale with the approval of the creditors’ committee.

The company is also having problems with the Hungarian government due to the downtime of its recently acquired plant in Dunaujvaros. At the end of 2024, the Hungarian government warned that the Liberty Dunaújváros unit could be at risk of bankruptcy and liquidation if the problems with salary payments and production resumption are not resolved soon.