North Rhine-Westphalia’s minister of economic affairs Andreas Pinkwart intends to engage in talks with Liberty Steel over the future over Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe’s operations, according to comments made to Reuters earlier this week.
Pinkwart noted that “we have received invitations from Liberty for talks, and we will accept them” and “what concerns us is the question of how things will continue with steel. Talks are being held, including with possible partners with whom we could meet or merge.”
Liberty Steel chairman and CEO Sanjeev Gupta commented late last week that he was eager to “intensify the dialogue with Thyssenkrupp and would like to engage in further due diligence to present a potential binding offer.”
Rumours suggest that Swedish outfit SSAB could be another potential suitor for the ailing German steelmaker, while others speculate that SSAB might even team up with Tata Steel Europe to create a rival partnership to a Liberty-Thyssenkrupp Steel acquisition.
Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe has an annual capacity to produce up to 12mn mt of crude steel from its Duisburg facility, which is capable of manufacturing hot strip, precision strip, heavy plate, coated, organic coated, electrical, packaging, and composite steels.