Liberty Galati steel plant and tube mill return to market at EUR 463 million, GCC investors expected among bidders
DUBAI: An amended asset sale plan for Liberty Galati has been approved by the Galati court, relaunching the auction process for Romania’s only integrated steel producer and Southeast Europe’s largest such asset. The auction, set for June 19, covers both the steel plant owned by Liberty Galati and the pipe mill owned by Liberty Tubular Products Galati, with a court-approved floor price of €463,012,174 (approximately $535 million).
The Galati platform covers 1,600 hectares, with port access to both the Danube River and the Black Sea. At full capacity, the plant produces up to 3 million tonnes of steel annually, running an integrated operation from raw material processing through to finished product. Its customer base spans construction, automotive, naval, energy, and defence sectors.
The sale will be conducted in full compliance with the company’s restructuring plans, and assets cannot be sold below the established floor price.
“GCC investors are becoming far more strategic in how they look at industrial assets,” said Paul Dieter Cîrlănaru, CEO of CITR. “Financial return remains important, of course, but over the last few months, investors are specifically examining whether an asset gives them control over capacity and resilience in supply chains. Liberty Galati is exactly that kind of asset and we expect this auction to reflect that.”
International interest in the asset is expected, with GCC investors among those likely to examine it closely. The European Union’s tightened steel market protections have made EU-based production considerably more competitive – import quotas have been cut, duties above those thresholds are set at 50%, and traceability requirements on foreign steel are tightening. A producer operating inside the bloc holds a structural advantage that cannot be replicated from outside it.
“Infrastructure timelines are never predictable, and investors know what it takes to build procurement relationships at this level. Which is exactly why a platform that already has them commands a different kind of attention,” said Paul Dieter Cîrlănaru, CEO, CITR.
The alternative – building comparable capacity from scratch – involves land acquisition, regulatory timelines, and years of production ramp-up before a plant reaches meaningful output. Liberty Galati’s existing supply chain position and operational infrastructure compress that timeline considerably.
The asset sale process is being conducted by the practitioners consortium CITR-Euro Insol in strict compliance with the provisions approved by the court.
Interested parties are invited to contact the composition administrators at [email protected] or [email protected] for documentation and further details.
