Closing Liberty Steel in Dudelange: dashed hopes and political failure

After several years of uncertainty, the fate of Liberty Steel's Dudelange plant has been effectively sealed. Turkish industrial giant Tosyali Holding, long considered the last chance for salvation, officially withdrew from the purchase of the plant at the beginning of May. For the remaining 130-140 employees, this was a blow that deprived them of their last hope.

The plant, which has been out of operation for several years, has been in bankruptcy since November 2024. Negotiations with Tosyali Holding lasted more than two months, during which the employees maintained a timid faith in salvation. Hubert Lacouture, a former OGBL trade union representative with almost 30 years' experience at the plant, described the situation as utterly frustrating: "We have no more work and no future".

Tosyali's decision was prompted by European market protection measures restricting steel imports from third countries. The Turkish investor had planned to source raw materials from Turkey and Algeria, but EU tariff barriers made the project uneconomic. The jobs were thus held hostage to the European Union's trade policy, which Luxembourg, according to the unions, was unable to cope with.

Robert Fornieri of the LCGB union called what was happening a "political failure at national and European level", noting that the EU was not taking exceptional cases like Liberty Steel into account in its single trade strategy. He called on European bodies to review the approach.

The OGBL and LCGB unions recognise that hope for a quick rescue of the plant has faded. Even if a new potential buyer emerges, negotiations could take months, and workers have run out of time. Instead of waiting, the priority is now to find new jobs. OGBL is already working with the Ministry of Labour and the employment agency ADEM to organise a job fair for affected employees.

Meanwhile, the fate of the enterprise itself remains uncertain. The court manager has been given three months to find a new investor. But with each passing day, the chances of resuming production are diminishing, and the plant itself is becoming a symbol of industrial and political powerlessness in small but ambitious Luxembourg.