<p>Liberty Steel's subsidiary Liberty Liege has stated that it has received the funding required to carry out the first step of the transformation plan for its Flemalle and Tilleur plants in Belgium from Liberty Steel Group and the plants are expected to be restarted by mid-February. Reports quoted Liberty Steel GREENSTEEL EMEA CEO Mr Toker Ozcan as saying that “Now we have the initial funding in place, we are able to restructure and ramp up the business as soon as possible. We continue to encourage the regional government to support the delivery of this plan. With the continuing rise in energy prices in Europe, with their impact on cheap imports, we also need the continued commitment of the unions to support the transformation of Liberty Liege, which will make the business more productive and more competitive.”</p><p>The transformation plan, which is expected to be well advanced by the spring, includes the Liberty Liege tinning line at Tilleur developing a new business model, which will see it build partnerships with major customers to manufacture specialist packaging for their products, and the G5 galvanization line at Flemalle being used to generate short-term profits.</p><p>Liberty Steel requested and obtained to be placed under judicial reorganization procedure in May 2021. This status was granted by the company court of Liège to protect the steelmaker from his creditors. The purpose of this status was to give the management time to allow it to set up a rescue plan for the Liège and Luxembourg sites associated with it. At the end of November 2021, Liberty Steel in Liège avoided bankruptcy by submitting a financial restructuring proposal to the Belgian courts with the support of Sogepa, the investment fund of the Walloon Region, and Liberty Steel Galati, which was to provide fresh investment. This proposal was accepted by the court, to the great relief of the 690 workers, even though 90 jobs would be lost in the operation. But a month later, Liberty Steel abandoned the recovery plan. In December last year, the company announced its intention to restart the facilities, both located in Liège, Belgium, without giving a deadline.</p>
<p>Liberty Steel's subsidiary Liberty Liege has stated that it has received the funding required to carry out the first step of the transformation plan for its Flemalle and Tilleur plants in Belgium from Liberty Steel Group and the plants are expected to be restarted by mid-February. Reports quoted Liberty Steel GREENSTEEL EMEA CEO Mr Toker Ozcan as saying that “Now we have the initial funding in place, we are able to restructure and ramp up the business as soon as possible. We continue to encourage the regional government to support the delivery of this plan. With the continuing rise in energy prices in Europe, with their impact on cheap imports, we also need the continued commitment of the unions to support the transformation of Liberty Liege, which will make the business more productive and more competitive.”</p><p>The transformation plan, which is expected to be well advanced by the spring, includes the Liberty Liege tinning line at Tilleur developing a new business model, which will see it build partnerships with major customers to manufacture specialist packaging for their products, and the G5 galvanization line at Flemalle being used to generate short-term profits.</p><p>Liberty Steel requested and obtained to be placed under judicial reorganization procedure in May 2021. This status was granted by the company court of Liège to protect the steelmaker from his creditors. The purpose of this status was to give the management time to allow it to set up a rescue plan for the Liège and Luxembourg sites associated with it. At the end of November 2021, Liberty Steel in Liège avoided bankruptcy by submitting a financial restructuring proposal to the Belgian courts with the support of Sogepa, the investment fund of the Walloon Region, and Liberty Steel Galati, which was to provide fresh investment. This proposal was accepted by the court, to the great relief of the 690 workers, even though 90 jobs would be lost in the operation. But a month later, Liberty Steel abandoned the recovery plan. In December last year, the company announced its intention to restart the facilities, both located in Liège, Belgium, without giving a deadline.</p>
