A British steel company recently acquired a large Pennsylvania producer of value-added carbon and alloy wire.
Liberty Steel, part of the global GFG Alliance, purchased Johnstown Wire Technologies (JWT) in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a large producer of value-added carbon and alloy wire in North America.
The acquisition allows Liberty the opportunity to manufacture a range of high-value carbon and alloy wire products for multiple end markets including the infrastructure, automotive, utility, and consumer sectors.
The advanced manufacturing facility at Johnstown will complement Liberty’s melting and rolling operations at Georgetown, South Carolina, and Peoria, Illinois, and, combined with its scrap processing plant in Tampa, Florida, will have a wide presence in the U.S. steel market.
The 638,000-square-foot Johnstown site has been a high-profile steel manufacturing facility for over 100 years and is one of the few U.S. producers of CHQ, electro-galvanized, aluminized and spring wire. JWT currently holds a high market position in the electro-galvanized and aluminized sectors.
With more than half of JWT’s output sold into the transportation market, Liberty is also aiming to capitalize on continued growth in U.S. vehicle production. It is one of the largest producers in the U.S. of CHQ wire, which is used in automotive products such as engine block bolts and brake pad rivets.
Liberty hopes that the acquisition will increase its capability to meet the “Made in America” specifications required for public infrastructure and utility contracts.
“This is another very significant step towards our ambitious U.S. goals,” said Grant Quasha, Chief Investment Officer for GFG in North America. “JWT is a profitable business with a skilled workforce and tremendous pedigree in the industry, so we look forward to welcoming it into the GFG USA family and helping it build an even stronger future.”
“We are excited to be joining the GFG family of global businesses and see this as a tremendous opportunity to further our position as a leading manufacturer of steel wire in North America,” said Jack Miller, President and CEO of Johnstown Wire Technologies.
“It’s a great pleasure to welcome 250 highly-skilled new members to our family,” said Sanjeev Gupta, GFG Group executive chairman. “Integration upstream and downstream with value-added product manufacturing is an absolute core to our U.S. steel strategy. The addition of high-quality specialized facilities at Johnstown further strengthens our existing facilities at Georgetown and Peoria.”
Liberty entered the U.S. market in 2017 by acquiring ArcelorMittal’s Georgetown mill and followed up with the purchase of Keystone Consolidated Industries, including its flagship Peoria mill, in 2018.
