The Strasbourg administrative tribunal has awarded insolvent Ascometal’s Fos-sur-Mer site in the south of France to Italian re-roller and steelmaker Marcegaglia. The plant will be renamed Marcegaglia Fos-sur-Mer and will produce hot rolled coil.

Antonio Marcegaglia confirms to Kallanish his group will retain the electric arc furnace-based unit’s entire workforce and will invest about €600 million ($650m) in its revamping.

The current ingot producing equipment will be replaced with a continuous slab caster and a rolling line for HRC, with an annual capacity of between 1.6 million and 2 million tonnes. Marcegaglia Fos-sur-Mer is expected to provide about 30% of the company’s HRC procurement needs. The site will be transformed with a focus on sustainability and energy efficiency, producing steel from scrap and low-emission direct reduced iron.

“This important acquisition is part of the Group's global strategy to integrate the entire value chain into our production,” Marcegaglia’s management say in a note. “The Port of Marseille is strategically located in terms of raw materials procurement and logistics. The significant industrial transformation project and the innovative technologies used will make the Fos-sur-Mer plant one of the most important assets of our Group. This investment is part of the broader development and decarbonisation strategy of the Group's activities.”

HRC production is scheduled to start by mid-2027. In the meantime, Marcegaglia aims to optimise Fos-sur-Mer’s existing production lines. The plant produces bearing and engineering steels, including ingots, billets and blooms, large-diameter rolled round bars and wire rod. Output has been significantly reduced.

In March, Ascometal was declared insolvent and went into receivership after the proposed sale of its units to Italian long steel producer Acciaierie Venete was terminated (see Kallanish passim).