Tata Steel (www.tatasteeleurope.com) has announced the sale of its Speciality Steels business to Liberty House in a £100 million deal.

The business employs around 1,700 people, making steels for the aerospace, automotive, oil and gas industries. The deal includes the Rotherham electric-arc steelworks, the steel-purifying facility in Stocksbridge and a mill in Brinsworth, plus service centres in Bolton, Wednesbury and Suzhou (China).

Bimlendra Jha, chief executive of Tata Steel UK, said: “This is good news for Speciality Steels and for Tata Steel’s core business in the UK.

For Speciality Steels, which is largely independent of our European strip-products supply chain, this is an important step forward in securing a future for the business under new ownership.

“Like our Scunthorpe-based Long Products business that we sold last year, we will be handing over a business that has been transformed after difficult decisions to re-structure and focus on higher-value markets.


Employees, trade unions and the management team have worked incredibly hard at Speciality Steels to improve its performance, and I’m delighted to say that the business is now on an improvement track that will enable it to thrive in the future.”

Sanjeev Gupta (pictured), Liberty House founder and executive chairman, said: “I am proud that we are acquiring a world-class business with a very skilled workforce and a broad range of high-value products.

It is one of only a handful of such operations in the world, and I am confident it will flourish within our group. We will now be able to melt scrap steel to create high-value-added products; I hope that, in due course, we will do so using renewable power.”

The deal will bring Liberty House’s staff numbers to 4,000, making it one of the largest steel and engineering employers in the UK.

Meanwhile, Mr Gupta has created a multi-million-pound foundation to develop the next generation of skilled industrial workers in the UK.

The GFG Foundation will provide: bursaries for individuals to take technical courses; grants to enhance regional skill-building projects; and funding for work experience and mentoring.

He said: “The foundation is a logical extension of our strategy to revive key industries in the UK, reflecting our core values, which are to add value to the communities where we operate.”