The US Department of Justice ruled on Tuesday that Mittal Steel should divest its Sparrows Point plant to satisfy anti-trust considerations relating to the tin mill products business in the USA.
The DOJ ruling is due to the large share of tin mill products sales accounted for by Mittal’s Sparrows Point and Weirton plants and Dofasco in Canada. The latter company was acquired by Arcelor and subsequently Mittal last year.
Mittal had in January entered into a provisional agreement with steel distributor Esmark to sell the Weirton plant, having been prevented from selling Dofasco to ThyssenKrupp.
"The divestiture of Sparrows Point will most reliably remedy the anticompetitive effects," said Thomas O. Barnett, assistant attorney general in charge of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division.
The Maryland mill is "a profitable and diversified facility" capable of producing more than 500,000 tons of tin mill products a year, his statement said.
Sparrows Point operates as an integrated facility, meaning it produces the raw steel slabs used in tin mill products, "and unlike the Weirton mill, would not have to develop new sources of supply for this critical input upon its separation from Mittal Steel."
ThyssenKrupp issued a statement today saying that it was not interested in acquiring Sparrows Point. Press reports have suggested various other potential buyers, including Russian, Indian and Chinese steelmakers.
