Tata Steel: 100 Black Country jobs secured in £100 million deal
The jobs of around 100 steelworkers in Wednesbury have been secured in a £100 million deal that will see Tata sell part of its business to Liberty House, the group that salvaged Caparo a year ago.
Tata Steel UK has announced it is negotiating with Liberty House for the sale of its speciality steels business, largely based in South Yorkshire and in China.
It employs 1,700 people making steels for the aerospace, automotive and the oil & gas industry and it includes 100 working at its service centre site in All Saints Road, Wednesbury.
The deal does not affect Tata's other sites at Wednesfield, Brierley Hill and Walsall, which employ around another 600.
Liberty House, run by the Gupta family, has been building a new steel business over recent years and saved nearly 1,000 Black Country jobs last year when it rescued a string of steel and engineering businesses that were part of the collapsed Caparo Industries group.
Liberty says the deal will secure the jobs of all 1.700 workers at Rotherham, Stocksbridge, Brinsworth, Wednesbury and Bolton, "plus thousands more in the UK supply chain".
It said: "The planned deal, in combination with Liberty's existing industrial foot print in the UK, would establish the group as one of Britain's most significant steel and engineering employers."
The company said it was a 'significant' step towards its 'Greensteel' vision of using UK domestic scrap metal melted in arc furnaces powered from renewable energy sources.
Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of the Liberty House Group said: "We look forward to working with Tata Steel over the coming weeks to complete this hugely important milestone transaction.
"We recognise the world-class skills of the Speciality Steels workforce and are eager to join with them to develop the business and increase market share, both domestically and internationally using our global presence.
"As part of that process we will now engage fully with the trade unions and the local community. We are counting on their full support."
The takeover is expected to be completed early in the new year.
Bimlendra Jha, chief executive of Tata Steel UK, added: "This is an important step forward in seeking a future for Speciality Steels and we have reached this stage thanks to the efforts of employees, trade unions and management.
"We now look forward to working with Liberty on the due diligence and other work streams so that the sale can be successfully concluded.
"We will continue to work closely with trade unions and will communicate any material news on this issue to the employees on an ongoing basis.
"We continue to actively seek solutions to the company's structural challenges and work with all stakeholders.
"Among those challenges, there is the need to develop a more sustainable business in the UK as well as a self-sustaining future for the British Steel Pension Scheme."