JSW Steel Offers Less Than $100 Million For Italian Steelmaker Lucchini

JSW Steel has reportedly offered less than $100 million for Italian steelmaker Lucchini’s core assets in Piombino.

While Lucchini declined to commment, it is understood that JSW will not take on any debt from the Italian steelmaker.

In 2012, Lucchini was declared insolvent, a move designed to save large companies from going under and to avoid heavy job losses.

VTB Capital’s head of commodities research, Wiktor Bielski, said, “The fact that JSW are not assuming any debt is positive. EU steel demand is about 30 percent below the 2008 financial crisis, and Italy was back in recession in Q2 2014, so JSW are not buying something that has upside in the short or even the medium term.”

As the Italian government attempts to pull through the country out of its third recession in only six years, it is imperative Lucchini’s Piombino complex prospers because it is capable of producing 2.5 million tons and employing upwards of 2,000 people.