International industrial and metals group Liberty House has announced that it has signed an agreement with Tata Steel UK, a subsidiary of India-based Tata Steel Limited, to acquire its high-profile Specialty Steels business for a total consideration of £100 million.
According to Liberty’s statement, the deal secures the future of around 1,700 jobs directly, and thousands more in the supply chain and regional economy.
Specialty Steels, which makes high-value steels for the aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas industries has manufacturing facilities in Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Brinsworth in South Yorkshire and Wednesbury in the West Midlands, as well as service centers located in Bolton, and in China. The business has the capability to make around 1.1 million mt of liquid steel per year from recycled scrap, melted in two electric arc furnaces at Rotherham.
Liberty also stated that the acquisition of Tata Steel’s Specialty Steels is a major step forward for its Greensteel strategy, which involves the recycling of UK scrap using renewable energy, as it gives the company melting capacity in Britain for the first time.