Trustee sought for Mittal plant sale

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The U.S. Justice Department has asked a federal judge to appoint a trustee to sell a Mittal Steel plant after the company failed to do so in a timely manner.

Mittal had agreed to sell its Sparrows Point facility near Baltimore to Bethlehem Acquisition Co., a joint venture led by Esmark Inc., but failed to do so before Monday's deadline, the Justice Department said in a news release. The sale was a condition of a consent decree in which Mittal would sell a steel mill that provides tin mill products in the eastern United States.

The sale was necessary for Mittal to acquire Arcelor. The Justice Department said the acquisition, as originally proposed, was anti-competitive. The department said Arcelor and its subsidiary provided competitive pricing that likely would have been lost if the proposal went through as originally offered.

“The prompt divestiture of Sparrows Point is important to preserve competition in the market for tin mill products in the eastern United States,” said Thomas O. Barnett, assistant attorney general in charge of the department’s antitrust division. “We are disappointed that Mittal has failed to complete a sale within the time prescribed by the consent decree. "