Mumbai: ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, has terminated an agreement to sell its Sparrows Point, Baltimore facility to E2 Acquisition Corp as the latter failed to secure financing.

The agreement was terminated on the direction of a court-appointed trustee and the trustee expects to finalise a transaction at the earliest, ArcelorMittal said in a statement.

US anti-trust authorities had, early this year, ordered ArcelorMittal to divest the plant as a condition for granting regulatory approval for Mittal's $35 billion takeover of Arcelor.

ArcelorMittal had, on 2 August announced a deal to sell the plant to E2 Acquisition Corp, a joint venture between Esmark and Wheeling Pittsburgh Corp, with a deadline set for 30 November which was later extended to December 11.

The US Department of Justice also had, in September, approved the sale of the Sparrows Point steel mill for roughly $1.35 billion.

The sale had to be terminated as the group failed to arrange funds, Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal said in the statement. The deadline to complete the sale to E2 ended on December 11.

This is the second time in less than a week that Mittal has announced the termination of a deal. Last week, ArcelorMittal announced the termination of an agreement to acquire China's Laiwu Steel for want of government approval there.

ArcelorMittal said it would continue to work closely with the US authorities to satisfy the terms of the regulatory framework.

Esmark, a Chicago-based metals distributor, had formed E2 with Brazil's Cia. Vale do Rio Doce and Ukraine's Industrial Union of Donbass in September to buy the Sparrows Point plant for $1.35 billion. The mill is on a deepwater port and can produce about 3.9 million tonnes of raw steel year.