The company is also planning to cut costs by 100 million euros as it goes ahead with continuing the United Kingdom business. The company has also deeply engaged with the governments of Britain and Wales at every stage of the process.
Advertisement
But Tata said it will begin separate steps towards the potential sale of its Speciality Steels business and the northern English Hartlepool pipe mills, except for its 20-inch Tube Mill.
“Tata Steel UK has already received interest from several bidders for Speciality Steels and the pipe mills in each case and a formal process will be commencing shortly”.
Tata steel employs 11,000 people in the UK.
“We continue to be actively engaged with both the United Kingdom and the Welsh Governments, the trade unions and the Pension Trustees”, he said.
Meanwhile Steelworkers’ union Community says workers feel they’re “back to square one”, with no certainty as to what will happen next and no guarantee that their jobs will be safe.
But no announcement had been made as the Argus went to press.
Tata also revealed that its overall United Kingdom sale strategy has been altered by the European Union referendum result.
In recent months the Government has floated the prospect of taking an equity stake in the Port Talbot steel works in order to prevent a closure of the plant and ministers have also been looking at special legislation to lower the pension benefits of Tata workers in order to ease a potential sale.
“Today’s announcement also brings us closer to testing the commitments that the United Kingdom government has made to steelworkers in recent months”.
The union also warned the company against a fire sale of its specialty steel business.
The company said on Friday night that it was in talks with ThyssenKrupp about combining its European steel businesses, including in the United Kingdom, but the deal requires financial support from the British government and a restructuring of Tata Steel’s pension scheme. “These actions will help secure our future and ensure that British steel making is able to provide post-Brexit Britain with much-needed security of supply”. “However, It is now absolutely critical that Tata Steel and the UK Government come forward with a specific timetable”.
“We all understand the massive impact of the referendum result, and we appreciate that Tata Steel, like so many other businesses, need time to review and evaluate the implications of Brexit”.
SPECULATION is growing that Tata Steel is set to announce the sale of its plants in Llanwern, Caerphilly, Port Talbot and elsewhere in the United Kingdom has been put on hold.
There has also been some relief in the pressure on the industry with the price of steel increasing. They have a world-class workforce making world-beating products.
“With talk of a tie up with ThyssenKrupp, this announcement can not result in the managed decline or Port Talbot while capacity is shipped elsewhere”. “With the right support and right investment steelmaking in Port Talbot and across Tata’s strips business can be profitable and sustainable”.
“When we faced the crisis with Tata you can be assured we looked at all options and one of those was whether or not, my phrase, to “buy it for a quid”.
A Tata Steel spokesperson told PTI: “There has been no official comment on the subject so far”.
“This is part of our ongoing dialogue with Tata to maintain momentum and achieve a long-term solution for United Kingdom steelmaking”, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Just finished meeting with Tata Steel in Mumbai”.
“Liberty will be bidding but that’s not the solution to the lack of competitiveness of the United Kingdom steel industry”.
“In the short term we will continue discussions with Tata about the acquisition of a number of important assets that fit well with our strategy”.
Advertisement
Mumbai: The UK-based commodity-trading firm Liberty House Group, that had formally submitted the first bid for some of Tata Steel Ltd’s UK assets, said it will continue discussions with Tata Group about potential acquisition even as it is disappointed with the delays.
