PARIS, Dec 26: The steel giant Arcelor Mittal said on Tuesday that it faced legal action by German industrial group ThyssenKrupp on grounds that it had not honoured a commitment to sell ThyssenKrupp the Canadian steelmaker Dofasco.

Arcelor Mittal said that it considered the litigation to be without foundation, but that a court hearing would be held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on Jan 11. Arcelor Mittal said ThyssenKrupp had alleged it had not respected the terms of a written agreement.

The two groups have been in dispute for months over the fate of Dofasco. In January, Arcelor, at the time independent and the biggest steel group in Europe, arranged to buy Dofasco for 4.0 billion euros after a bidding battle with ThyssenKrupp.

But then Mittal Steel, which has since acquired Arcelor, did a deal with ThyssenKrupp to sell the German group Dofasco if Mittal were successful with its own hostile bid for Arcelor.

However, Arcelor had tried to protect Dofasco from Mittal Steel by means of complex legal arrangements that involved the transfer of shares in Dofasco to an independent foundation in The Netherlands.

ThyssenKrupp wants to obtain Dofasco from the new Arcelor Mittal group and thereby move up from being the seventh-biggest steel producer in the world to rank number six.—AFP