SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar (SHS) acquires Liberty Ascoval and Liberty Rail Hayange

SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar (SHS) Group confirms that its takeover of Liberty Ascoval (Saint-Saulve, Nord, "Ascoval") and Liberty Rail Hayange (Hayange, Moselle, "Hayange") has been formally validated by the French authorities.

With the support of stakeholders and public officials, SHS’s takeover of the Ascoval and Hayange plants will enable the forward-looking human and industrial concept for the future of the Nord and Moselle regions to be implemented. SHS focuses on the production of high-quality European green steel and is proud to be able to work together with the workforces of Ascoval and Hayange to realise this concept.

Linked to France since the 17th century, the SHS Group can count on its leading position, particularly in the production of high-quality, high-tech steel bars and wire rod, as well as on the support of its owner, the Montan-Stiftung-Saar trust, which guarantees the alignment of the Group's activities with its mission of safeguarding the Saarland steel industry model.

"We are proud that our industrial concept for the takeover of Ascoval and Hayange has been validated and can now be implemented. This integration is fully in line with our growth and diversification strategy. These two plants have a unique position within the SHS Group. They allow us to develop new activities and to strengthen our competitiveness in line with our ongoing structural transformation process", says Dr. Karl-Ulrich Köhler, Chairman of the Management Board of SHS.

Three principles structure the new common concept of Ascoval, Hayange and SHS:

• As backbone of the production of green steel, Ascoval combines the circular economy with a new technology with low CO2-emissions that is recognised and approved by respected customers: the electric arc furnace, which enables the production of state-of-the-art steel with a neutral carbon footprint.
• Hayange is a key asset of the SHS Group, contributing to the European strategy of ecological transition of mobility—thanks to the production of railway infrastructure products, which are essential for the development of sustainable mobility solutions.
• For their part, Ascoval and Hayange will gain access to new business fields, such as the automotive sector, and geographical markets, thanks to the SHS Group's worldwide sales network.

Mr. Jonathan Weber, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and member of the Boards of SHS and Saarstahl, said: "The alliance between Ascoval, Hayange and Saarstahl within the SHS Group opens up promising prospects, thanks to the real complementarity of the know-how, production and innovation capacities and commercial opportunities of each. We look forward to a rapid and efficient integration of these two new plants within the Group, in full accordance with our strategy."

About SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar

SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar GmbH & Co KGaA was founded in 2001 and became an operational management holding company in 2010, which has since been actively supporting the two major Saarland steel companies, AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke (Dillinger) and Saarstahl AG.

This merger enables the companies Dillinger and Saarstahl to strengthen their existing cooperation and their presence in their respective markets. Thus, they work together to grow, become more high-performance and expand competitiveness in their respective markets SHS-Group (Saarstahl's parent company) is wholly owned by the "Montan-Stiftung-Saar", a Germanprivate-law industrial trust , which aims to secure and strengthen these two major steel companies.

The Saarland steel group (SHS with Saarstahl and Dillinger) employs a total of 13,000 people, of whom about 900 work in France and 800 French cross-border employees. Together, they invest continuously in training and qualification as well as in the modernisation of tools and processes. Furthermore, they are implementing a strategy of digitalisation and Industry 4.0. Saarstahl and Dillinger have invested, in average, around 150 million euros per year over the past decade.

About Saarstahl AG

The Saarstahl Group, headquartered in Völklingen, is part of the SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar Group, to which its sister company Dillinger (AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke ) also belongs.

The history of Saarstahl begins at the end of the 16th century in Neunkirchen. Together, SHS and Saarstahl are the majority shareholders of the Dillinger company, which was founded in 1685 on a concession from King Louis XIV. 

The Saarstahl Group specialises in the manufacture of high-quality wire rod, bars, semi-finished products and forged products. Saarstahl relies on innovative products and intelligent technologies to meet global challenges such as mobility, energy efficiency and safety. Saarstahl's products are highly valued, especially in the automotive and construction industries, power plants, aerospace, mechanical engineering and other steel processing industries.