British steel company expands U.S. presence with purchase of Johnstown wire producer

Liberty Steel, part of a Londonbased conglomerate owned by a wealthy British businessman, has expanded its American steel footprint with the purchase of a former Bethlehem Steel property in Johnstown.

Johnstown Wire Technologies, one of the largest producers of value-added carbon and alloy wire in North America, was sold to Liberty Steel for an undisclosed purchase price, according to an announcement this week.

The plant provides “valuable capacity to manufacture a range of high-value carbon and alloy wire products for multiple end markets including the infrastructure, automotive, utility and consumer sectors,” Liberty Steel said in a press release. The purchase is part of a strategy by primary steel producers to acquire “downstream” businesses that process steel into other forms of metal.

“Integrating upstream and downstream with value-added product manufacturing is an absolute core to our U.S. steel strategy,” said Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the GFG Alliance, the British conglomerate, in a statement.

The mill — which dates back to 1911, spans 638,000 square feet and employs 229 workers — has long been considered to be up for sale.

It has been owned by New York City-based private equity firm Aterian Investment Partners since 2014, and the firm was rumored to have been seeking buyers.

In November, the Financial Times reported British Steel had made a bid. British Steel has since fallen off a financial cliff and, last month, was placed into compulsory liquidation, putting at least 5,000 jobs at risk.

Buying Johnstown Wire Technologies follows GFG Alliance’s plans to expand its U.S. steel production by 800,000 annual tons and to restart a second electric arc furnace at a South Carolina plant.

“There is a growing desire to buy American-made rather than imported steel,” Mr. Gupta said in a news release in January announcing the plans.

“The USA is the largest exporter of scrap and the largest importer of steel in the world, so clearly there is an opportunity to produce more steel in the U.S. for the local market from domestic scrap, and we intend to seize this opportunity.”