Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty House Group has stepped up its drive to become an international leader in sustainable steel production by recruiting one of the industry’s most experienced technologists to its management team.

Eric Vitse, who has led technology strategies for ArcelorMittal and Turkey’s Erdemir Group, is to become Liberty’s global chief technology officer, spearheading the group’s move towards clean, low-carbon methods across all of its industrial operations, from mining and energy through to high-value engineered products.

French national Mr Vitse is currently chief technology officer for Erdemir, Europe’s third largest steel producer, following a three-decade career with ArcelorMittal and previously French-owned Usinor, which merged with Arcelor in 2001.

As chief technology officer for ArcelorMittal in the Americas he was responsible for capital investment strategy and technical oversight across more than 40 steel-making facilities with combined capacity of over 40m tonnes per annum.

Over the past two years he has led Erdemir’s engineering transformation programme, devising and implementing a wide range of innovative technologies, processes and solutions to support the Group’s strategy for growth and global best practice. This included securing environmental best practice solutions and vertical integration opportunities.

He achieved a major expansion of the Group’s research and development capability and established a technical academy to nurture a new generation of engineers for the business.

Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the Liberty House Group said: “Eric’s appointment is a key milestone in our journey to becoming a leading sustainable steel producer. We will implement the latest technologies in all our plants from scrap processing, to lower-carbon electric arc furnaces, to the latest technologies in primary steel making and mining, all designed to improve efficiency and lower the carbon footprint of our business. Eric has decades of experience as CTO in leading international steel groups and joins us at an exciting time as we undertake the substantial development of steel assets both in the UK and Australia. We look forward to capitalising on his extensive experience and knowledge.”

Mr Vitse said: “I’m very excited to join such a forward-looking group that will play a key part in taking world steel production to the next generation, both technologically and culturally. Liberty’s focus on GREENSTEEL is absolutely essential for the future, and technology must provide the bold and secure solutions the industry needs to sustain itself long-term.”