Liberty's Specialty Steel UK enters administration
Liberty Specialty Steel has been placed under special managers appointed by the government, after a winding down petition in the UK High Court.
LIBERTY Speciality Steels, serves the aerospace market by delivering ingot, bar and cut pieces that are used to produce engine components, landing gear, controls, aero structure and helicopter rotor components
© kirill_makarovUK Steel says LIBERTY Steel employs around 1,450 people within the Specialty business and provides steelmaking capacity in aerospace, defence and power generation.
Its steel is said to be in vessels such as aircraft carriers, military aircraft components and defence systems, landing gear, controls and components for oil and gas, power generation, rail and beyond.
Jeffrey Kabel, LIBERTY Steel Group’s Chief Transformation Officer, says, 'The decision to push Speciality Steel UK into compulsory liquidation, especially when we have support from the world’s largest asset manager to resume operations and facilitate creditor recovery is irrational.'
Kabel claims that the plan presented to the court would have secured new investment in the UK steel industry, and established a sustainable operational platform under a new governance structure with independent oversight.
He goes on to say that liquidation will impose prolonged uncertainty and significant costs on UK taxpayers for settlements and related expenses, despite a commercial solution being available.
LIBERTY says it has pursued all options to make its SSUK viable, including efficiency improvements, reorganisations, customer support, several attempts to find a buyer for the business and intensive negotiations with creditors to restructure debt liabilities.
GFG plans to advance its bid for the business alongside debt and equity partners and will present its plan to the official receiver.
UK Steel Director General, Gareth Stace, says, 'UK Steel welcomes the government’s recognition of the importance of the Liberty Speciality Steel assets and hopes that a new owner is found quickly and can inject the investment and working capital required to return production volumes to previous levels.
'The assets produce high quality, specialist steels that serve high value markets. The low production levels of recent years have left significant holes in the domestic supply chain that have been filled by imports. We hope to see these holes quickly filled by UK-made steel.'
Community General Secretary, Roy Rickhuss CBE, says, 'This is an extremely worrying time for our members at Liberty Steel, but the government’s intervention must mark a turning point to deliver certainty for these strategically important businesses.
'Crucially, jobs must be protected throughout any restructuring and transition to new ownership. Steelworkers at Liberty Steel are highly-skilled and hugely experienced; they are quite frankly irreplaceable and will be critical to delivering future success for the businesses.'
