Liberty Steel Group (LSG), part of GFG Alliance, acquired the strategic French steel assets of France Rail Industry business (Hayange) and the Ascoval steelworks. Hayange, located in Moselle, manufactures a range of steel rails for nationally significant infrastructure clients, including France’s national rail operator and the operator of Paris’ metro system. The site, which employs around 430 people, produces over 300,000 metric tons of rail per year. Ascoval, based in Saint-Saulve in northern France, has approximately 270 employees. The plant uses electric-arc furnace (EAF) technology and has the capability to produce 600,000 metric tons of steel blooms, billets and other forged products annually from recycled scrap metal. Ascoval will use recycled steel to supply Hayange, creating an integrated French GREENSTEEL rail business.

LSG’s GREENSTEEL model seeks to transform steelmaking through increased use of steel recycling in EAFs, application of low-carbon and renewable energy sources to power industrial processes, and use of hydrogen instead of coking coal as a reducing agent for iron ore through direct reduced iron (DRI) plants to remove CO₂ emissions from steelmaking.