Indian steelmaker JSW early this morning signed an agreement to acquire Aferpi from current owner Cevital, sources told S&P Global Platts. The sale could conclude as quickly as the end of March.
JSW has pursued Aferpi as it wants to gain a foothold in the Italian and wider European market; it earlier attempted to acquire Ilva but lost out in that bid.
Aferpi is a longs producer, with rails its core business, but JSW wants to produce flats. It also wants to reopen the Piombino blast furnace and will re-vamp in and invest in the rolling mills. JSW has been supplying Aferpi with blooms since the hot end was shuttered.
A revamped blast furnace could produce around 1.7 million mt-2.4 million mt/year of crude steel.
To maintain support from the Italian government and unions, the company will maintain longs output, although how much it will produce is unclear. Sources close to the deal said longs production could be in partnership with another mill. British Steel, the UK longs producer, was also interested in acquiring Aferpi.
It is understood the Italian Minister for Economic Development, Carlo Calenda, is trying to make the deal official, which may score the party points ahead of the hotly contested March 4 general election; the European Commission’s extended investigation into ArcelorMittal’s acquisition of Ilva means this deal will not conclude ahead of the election.
— Annalisa Villa
