JSW, Cevital submit final bids for Italian steelmaker Lucchini

LONDON (Reuters) - India's JSW Steel and Algeria's Cevital have submitted final bids for the troubled Lucchini Piombino steelmaking complex, Italy's second-largest steel producer, which is battling for survival.

Lucchini was owned by Russia's Severstal , but was declared insolvent in 2012 and placed under special administration.

Like its peers in Europe, Lucchini has been battered by slowing demand since the 2008 financial crisis and stiff competition from emerging countries.

The company said on Wednesday that special commissioner Piero Nardi would analyse the bids and submit an initial report to a supervisory committee in Rome on Nov. 21.

JSW had already submitted an offer of less than $100 million for the Italian company's core assets in Piombino on the Tuscan coast but was asked last month to lift this offer.

 

Industry sources have said JSW's plan was for Lucchini to process in Italy steel made elsewhere but the leading labour union has expressed opposition to ending the steel-melting process.

The Piombino complex employs about 2,000 people and can produce 2.5 million tonnes of steel a year. It is a main industrial plant for Italy, the second-largest European steel producer after Germany.

(Reporting by Maytaal Angel and Silvia Antonioli; Editing by Michael Urquhart and Mark Potter)