Still interested in buying Tata Steel’s UK business: JSW Steel

New Delhi, June 24: Sajjan Jindal-led JSW Steel will continue to have its interest in buying Tata Steel’s UK business, despite the uncertainties over Britain' s exit from the European Union.

“The impact of Brexit is likely to be short-term and is likely to settle in 10 to 15 days. We continue to have interest in Tata Steel's UK plant and have already submitted our proposal,” Vinod Nowal, deputy managing director, J SW Steel told FE when asked to comment on the possible Brexit impact on the steel industry.

The optimism perhaps came from the belief that the global steel industry would unlikely to be impacted in the short-term particularly due to the fact that the Br exit could actually happen only a couple of years later and the fact that the UK is not a significant player in the global steel industry.

World Steel Association (WSA), a global steel industry body, said that Brexit will have no direct or obvious consequences on the global steel industry. Joint Plant committee (JPC), a unit under the Indian steel ministry, said since the UK is neither a big exporter nor a big importer from India, there would be no immediate bearing on the Indian steel industry.

“As the result is only a few hours old and it is unlikely that the UK will finally leave the EU for at least a couple of years, little will change in the short term. With new trade arrangements to be negotiated by the UK over the next few years, it is likely that the overseas markets for British steel will continue to exist and so in the medium to long term there will also be little or no change,” WSA's communication and public policy director Nicholas Walters told FE.

With only over 10.9 MT production last year, the UK is not a significant player in the world steel market which produced 1,621 MT in 2015. Ranked at 18th among the major steel producing nations, the UK had exported only 45,000 tonnes steel to India in 2015-16 while India exported 39,000 ton nesto Britainin the same year.

FACTFILE UK produced 10.9 MT, exported 7.3 MT and imported 7.2 MT steel in 2015 Almost half of its exports were to the EU while 69% imports were from the EU UK exported 45,000 tonnes steel to India in 2015-16 while imported 39,000 tonnes Global...