London, May 4, 2017: On Tuesday, Britain's Indian-origin steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta announced 300 new jobs and multi-million- pound investments in a steel division formerly owned by Tata Steel.
Gupta's Liberty House, the industrial and commodities group that is purchasing steel assets around the world, stated it plans to safeguard the future of five sites across the north of England and West Midlands as it formally fulfilled its 100-million-pound acquisition of Tata Steel UK's Speciality Steels division, a deal announced earlier this year.
Besides, the objective to create new jobs, the move shields at least 1,700 existing jobs at three major sites at Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Brinsworth in South Yorkshire, smaller sites in Bolton, Lancashire and Wednesbury in the West Midlands and two distribution centres in China, mentioned PTI report.
NewsGram brings to you current foreign news from all over the world.
After this acquisition, Liberty will become one of the largest steel and engineering employers in the UK, with over 4,500 workers.
"The Speciality Steels business is a global leader in its field, with a highly skilled and well-motivated workforce and we are eager to invest so it can grow and achieve its full potential. Today marks a step change for the Liberty House Group because we are taking on strategically important capacity that will drive expansion in the years ahead," Gupta stated today.
According to PTI report, the Liberty House executive chairman, on an acquisition spree in the US recently, stated the UK investment is aimed at accomplishing his global GreenSteel vision of steel production's sustainable future, which will ease investment in engineering products and reduction of the supply-chain gaps in the UK, especially in automotive and aerospace sectors.
Check out NewsGram for latest international news updates.
Speciality Steels yields a range of high-value steels utilised in the manufacture of vehicles, aircraft, equipment for the oil and gas industry and industrial machinery.
Liberty stated it plans to invest up to 20 million pounds in new plant and equipment in the first year alone to augment competitiveness and safeguard international market leadership for the business, which is being relaunched as Liberty Speciality Steels.
Production from the arc furnaces is anticipated to rise over a million tonnes per annum and there are plans for the bar mill to produce over 400,000 tonnes a year.
The acquisition exhibits a major step forward for Liberty's GreenSteel strategy as it gives the group the largest arc furnace capacity in the UK, a key component in its plan to ascend low-carbon steel production based on recycling metal in furnaces powered by renewable energy.
The Speciality Steels transaction is the latest in a succession of key acquisitions and business turnarounds undertaken by Liberty House, SIMEC and the broader GFG Alliance over the past three years.
These are comprised of major metal, energy, engineering, property and financial assets in London, West Midlands, Wales and Scotland.
– prepared by Sabhyata Badhwar. Twitter: @SabbyDarkhorse