WASHINGTON, Feb 20: The US Justice Department said on Tuesday that it would require European steel giant Arcelor Mittal to divest a large US steel mill located near Baltimore, Maryland, to resolve concerns about its recent merger.

Mittal Steel acquired European steelmaker Arcelor last summer in a $32.5-billion deal. The deal forged a vast new global group, Areclor Mittal, which is headed by Indian businessman Lakshmi Mittal.

“The Department of Justice today announced that it will require Mittal Steel Company N.V. to divest its Sparrows Point facility located near Baltimore, Maryland, to remedy the competitive harm arising from Mittal’s recent $33 billion acquisition of Arcelor S.A,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

It said “the acquisition, as originally proposed, would have substantially lessened competition in the market for tin mill products in the eastern United States.”

The US government last August had approved Mittal's acquisition of Arcelor on the basis that Arcelor divested a Canadian company it owned called Dofasco Inc.—AFP