Sanjeev Gupta’s global GFG Alliance has inaugurated Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque, Europe’s largest smelter, declaring its intention to expand into France’s industrial supply chain.
GFG purchased the smelter for around US$500 million from Rio Tinto in December last year.
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GFG aims to make the 570-worker plant the hub of a manufacturing supply chain providing materials and components for French industry, particularly the automotive sector. The smelter currently produces 285,000 tonnes of primary aluminium per year.
Mr Gupta also announced that Liberty Wheels France, already a major customer of the Dunkerque smelter, has won it first major contract since the London-headquartered Alliance took over the plant in May last year.
GFG Chairman and CEO, Sanjeev Gupta said: “Our aim is to make this site and the highly skilled women and men who work there, the cornerstone of our integrated industrial business in France. We will work with local management and staff to develop new products which create even more added-value to the aluminium produced there, both sustaining and creating high-value jobs.”
“Together Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque and Liberty Wheels France symbolise our integrated supply chain and business model in action. What we now have is a further French car manufacturer being supplied with wheels ‘made in France’ made out of aluminium from our smelter also ‘made in France.’”
Managing Director of Liberty Aluminium Dunkerque, Guillaume de Goÿs, said: “We are eager to play our role within the French supply chain, to support our customers and partners and through doing so, to become known as a Centre of Excellence for Aluminium. We have an ambitious programme to maximise the value of the aluminium we currently produce and to become a preferred supplier to the automotive and other growing industries in France.”
COO of Liberty Engineering Mainland Europe Philippe Baudon said: “Winning the contract to supply Ligier is a significant step for our Chateauroux site and for GFG in France. Since taking over the site last year, management and staff have all worked tirelessly to turn the site around – to implement the operational and cultural changes needed to make us more competitive and attract new customers”
“Work is already underway to start delivering Ligier’s first batch of French-made wheels in June as part of what I hope will be a close and ongoing partnership”.
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