ArcelorMittal South Africa has confirmed that it was one of two short listed bidders for the debt laden Zimbabwe Iron & Steel Company and that it had also not ruled out a bid for Scaw Metals, which Anglo American announced last week was no longer core to its future.

Ms Nonkululeko Nyembezi Heita CEO of ArcelorMittal SA refrained from commenting on or naming the group's rival for ZISCO and would also not comment on the value of its bid nor on how it planned to deal with the estimated USD 300 million worth of debt on ZISCO's books.
Ms Nyembezi Heita indicated that it would be premature to say for certain whether or not the group was interested in Scaw, which some analysts value at over ZAR 1 billion.

She also revealed that, should its bid prove successful, it could result in a revision to its long-steel expansion plans in South Africa. She said that "We were looking to add capacity to our long-steel production facilities in South Africa. ZISCO gives us to the opportunity to re look at those plans."

Meanwhile, despite its dominance in the South African market, Ms Nyembezi Heita did not immediately rule out a bid for Scaw. She said that "We can neither confirm, nor deny, our interests in Scaw. We will be taking a look as more information becomes available."

(Sourced from www.engineeringnews.co.za)