Liberty House Declares Historic Restart of Idled Georgetown Steel Works

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Georgetown steel works in South Carolina has been brought back to life. The U.K.-based Liberty House announced restart of the facility on Monday, marking the steel conglomerate’s entry into the U.S. market. Incidentally, the facility has been remaining idle for almost three years, since its purchase by the Liberty Group from ArcelorMittal, who had shuttered the plant in 2015. The historic Georgetown steel mill is believed to have 750,000 tons per year rolling capacity.

Sanjeev Gupta, owner, Liberty House noted that the re-commissioning of the Georgetown’s furnace and wire rod mills is just the beginning of a series of projects planned by GFG Alliance- the Group’s holding company. GFG Alliance plans an investment of around $5 billion across the U.S. and Canada, Gupta said. Out of this, it plans to spend $1 billion during the current year itself. Recently, the company had announced the purchase of a Florida scrap metal business. Additionally, a regional head office will be set up in New York, which will act as the hub for the company’s global operations, he added.

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The company praised the hard work of employees over recent months to bring the production equipment back on stream. It must be noted that the Georgetown site already has 125 workers on site, including a large number of former employees. Upon operation, the mill is expected to generate nearly 320 jobs in the medium term. Mr. Gupta also thanked Georgetown Council, the South Carolina State Government, the United Steelworkers and many other local and industry stakeholders for their support in restarting the site. Also, the company announced appointment of Revansidha ‘Rohit’ Gulve as the new general manager of Georgetown mill.

The mill restart is expected to create additional jobs and contribute significantly to the region’s economic development.