DOJ orders Mittal to sell Maryland mill

DOJ orders Mittal to sell Maryland mill

	Published : Tue, 20 Feb 2007 17:41 By : Agencies Print this Story

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday ordered Mittal Steel Co. to sell a Maryland mill to settle antitrust concerns over its combination with Arcelor SA, rather than shedding the West Virginia mill that had volunteered to be sold.

Justice officials had initially ordered Netherlands-based Mittal to try to sell Dofasco Inc. of Canada, but the Dutch trust that controls Dofasco rejected a plan to sell it to ThyssenKrupp AG of Germany.

That left Mittal with the choice of selling one of its two U.S. assets in the tin-plated steel market, Sparrows Point near Baltimore or the former Weirton Steel Corp. in Weirton.

Tuesday's announcement said the combination of Mittal and Luxembourg-based Arcelor would have squelched competition for tin mill products in the eastern United States.

'The divestiture of Sparrows Point will most reliably remedy the anticompetitive effects,' said Thomas O. Barnett, assistant attorney general in charge of the DOJ's Antitrust Division.

The Maryland mill is 'a profitable and diversified facility' capable of producing more than 500,000 tons of tin mill products a year, his statement said.

Sparrows Point operates as an integrated facility, meaning it produces the raw steel slabs used in tin mill products, 'and unlike the Weirton mill, would not have to develop new sources of supply for this critical input upon its separation from Mittal Steel.'

Tin mill products are finely rolled steel sheets coated with tin or chrome. Tinplated steel is used primarily for food cans and metal containers for products such as aerosols and paints.

Before the Arcelor Mittal merger, Mittal and one other steelmaker accounted for more than 74 percent of all tin sales in the eastern United States. Dofasco, a large integrated mill in Ontario, had provided 'a significant competitive constraint' on those two companies.

'By removing those constraints on anticompetitive pricing,' the DOJ said, 'the acquisition likely would have resulted in price increases of tin mill products to can manufacturers and other customers.'

Mittal spokespeople declined to comment.