Tata Steel may sell its business in Europe as early as March next year

Indian steelmaker Tata Steel is forced to revolutionize its business due to the UK crisis and will sell Tata Steel to Long Products Europe by March next year. Tata Steel Europe CEO Karl Köhler announced this.

Tata Steel's long products division produces plates, rebar, wire rod and semi-finished steel products in Europe for a variety of markets, including construction, shipbuilding, energy and mechanical engineering.

“Long products have no future in Tata Steel Europe,” said the head of the company, adding that the issue will be resolved before the end of the current fiscal year.

Earlier it was reported that Tata Steel is in talks with the Swiss Klesch Group of an American billionaire with a dubious reputation. Gary the Tick is known as the "capitalist vulture" who buys companies at the price of scrap metal and in most cases precisely for the purpose of obtaining scrap metal and other waste. In July, Tata Steel confirmed that negotiations for the sale of its UK smelters were ongoing.

Problems in the steel industry of Foggy Albion began at the end of 2014 after the introduction of new electricity tariffs, additional "green" taxes and worsened this fall after the fall in world steel prices by a third. British analysts called the combination of negative factors in the market “the perfect storm”. In the last month alone, nearly 6,000 people have been laid off in the UK steel sector.

“In response to deteriorating market and economic conditions, the company continues to restructure its business in the UK, and recently announced the closure of some of its factories in that country,” said the head of Tata Steel Europe.

On Friday, the international rating agency Moody's changed its outlook on Tata Steel's credit rating from stable to negative due to problems in the UK market.