GFG to inject £50m to relaunch Rotherham Production

GFG has announced it will inject £50 million of new funding into LIBERTY Steel UK to enable the restart of LSUK’s core Rotherham electric arc furnace. GFG says the provision of funding will set the platform to refinance LSUK operations in full, create a leading long-term GREENSTEEL hub, and support the RTC’s work of creating a profitable, restructured and focused business.

Funds will be allocated to LSUK through a new separate corporate entity LIBERTY Capital. LSUK will run as normal with funding for growth in working capital approved through LIBERTY Capital. GFG says this arrangement will ensure fast and effective deployment of the £50 million in initial funds in the UK, enabling LSUK to restart its operations. This will allow time to prove the operations can run efficiently which will enable them to finalise longer term debt restructuring.

Production ramp-up will commence in October 2021 with “a plan to reach 50,000 tonnes per month as soon as possible”.

The funding injection will also enable LSUK’s speciality division SSUK (Stocksbridge, Narrow Strip, Performance Steel) to “run focused production campaigns for key customers”. GFG says this will allow “support business continuity, establish a stable operating environment and create an attractive asset”.
Full Liberty Steel Group release including updates on other Liberty region.

JLR Q2 sales constrained by semiconductor supply

Jaguar Land Rover reported sales for the three month period to 30th September continued to be constrained by the global semiconductor shortage.

Retail sales for the second quarter ending 30 September 2021 were 92,710 vehicles, 18.4% lower than the 113,569 vehicles sold in Q2 last year. Retails were lower year-on year in most regions, including North America (-15.6%), China (-6.3%), Europe (-17.0%), and in the UK (-47.6%), but were up in our Overseas region (+10.0%).

Retail sales of all models were lower year-on-year with the exception of the new Land Rover Defender, which retailed 16,725 vehicles, up 70.4% year-on-year, making it the bestselling model in the quarter.

In line with July guidance, Q2 FY22 wholesales totaled 64,032 units (excluding the China JV), down 12.8% year-on year. As with retails, wholesales were lower year-on-year in all regions apart from our Overseas region (+40.5%) and for most models, except the new Land Rover Defender up 18.0% on 14,305 wholesales.Full JLR Release