From July, Vienna will become the European headquarters of the globally active British steel group Liberty (30,000 employees, 200 locations). The reason for this is that Thomas Gangl, an Austrian, becomes the new head of Europe and “brings” the company’s former headquarters from Bucharest.
Gangl has been a top manager at OMV for years and is currently at the head of plastics subsidiary Borealis. “I am very attached to the location. “In discussions with Liberty owner Sanjeev Gupta, we have found this solution and we will set up a holding company for Europe in Vienna, if possible as early as July 1,” the 51-year-old smiles. Based in Vienna, he will be responsible for 18,000 employees and a turnover of three to four billion euros.
Liberty has four steel mills in the EU (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania), as well as sites in France, Great Britain, etc. Internationally, it is also represented in India, the US and Australia, where Liberty also has its own huge iron ore mine. In addition to integrating the sites that were only purchased together in 2019 and reducing the resulting high debts, Gangl must now continue its transformation into a ‘green’ steel producer. “We want to be CO₂ neutral by 2030, that is an incredible announcement.”
This requires more than a billion euros in investments, for example in electric smelting furnaces instead of conventional systems fired with coal or gas. This requires large amounts of green energy and hydrogen. Gangl, a qualified engineer, has already led corresponding projects at OMV. Recently there were disagreements with OMV boss Alfred Stern and therefore the offer to the steel industry was welcome.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
