Liberty Steel shutting Liege-Dudelange tomorrow

Liberty Steel is closing its Flemalle, Tilleur and Dudelange sites in Belgium and Luxembourg tomorrow as it does not have sufficient workers to operate the plants.

Finished products ready for customers will be shipped, a company spokesperson told Argus. Some sources suggested the company was also suffering from a lack of feedstock, with one of its suppliers having to reduce blast furnace and coil because of the coronavirus and its impact on demand levels.

Dudelange in Luxembourg has capacity to produce 620,000 t/yr of Aluzinc and 360,000 t/yr of electrogalv, 160,000 t/yr of which is currently mothballed.

Tilleur produced 200,000 t/yr of cold rolled and tinplate, while Flemalle has 950,000 t/yr capacity of hot- and cold-rolled galvanised steel.

Liege-Dudelange also offers cutting and slitting services, and has capacity of 200,000 t/yr.

The closures will be a further supply-side shock to an already tight hot-dip galvanised market, but demand is also evaporating sharply, given the closure of companies in automotive and other sectors.

By Colin Richardson

source: Argus Media