Fort William aluminium smelter’s troubled boss vows none of the steel plants will shut

Fort William aluminium smelter’s troubled boss has affirmed that none of the steel plants will shut “under my watch”.

The founder of Liberty House Group and Chairman and CEO of GFG Alliance, Sanjeev Gupta also confessed that his Liberty Steel business owes “multi-billions” to the collapsed financial lender, Greensill Capital.

On 2^nd April 2021, Lochaber Chamber of Commerce (LCC) explained: “The smelter, which was bought by GFG in 2016 and is part of its Alvance aluminium wing, as a ‘critical part’ of the local community, and the organisation would continue to engage with the company about any impact the ‘current challenges’ might have on its operations in the area.”

Kwasi Kwarteng, UK Business Secretary has turn downed to rule out the probability that Liberty Steel could be taken into public ownership, saying “all options are on the table”.

British ministers had already turned down a request from GFG Alliance for a bailout.

While Gupta’s commented: “The firm was currently enjoying one of the best markets in steel and aluminium and its recent efforts to make ‘efficiency gains’ were delivering good results.

“So, as a result, we have a huge amount of interest from new financiers who are willing to back us,” he added.

Sanjeev Gupta said: We launched a project linked to ‘cash measures’ plants are taking to optimise and conserve and be careful.”

“Our overall global operations are profitable, we have refinancing offers, we will refinance and we will support our UK business also”, he further added.

“None of my steel plants under my watch will be shut down.”