Liberty House to invest big money in steel factories
STEEL giant Liberty House is planning to make multimillionpound investments to secure the future of five plants including one in the Black Country.
The announcement was made as Liberty formally completed a £100 million deal to acquire the speciality steels division of Tata Steel UK.
Tata Steel, part of the same global group as Jaguar Land Rover, has been trying to sell parts of its beleaguered operation in the UK for more than a year.
The news protects the jobs of 1,700 existing staff at service centres in Wednesbury and Bolton, several operations in South Yorkshire and bases in Suzhou and Xi’an, China.
On completing the deal, Liberty House has announced expansion plans which are expected to generate an additional 300 production jobs in South Yorkshire.
The acquisition will make Liberty one of the largest steel and engineering employers in the UK, with more than 4,500 workers, and follows its 2015 deal to acquire parts of engineering group Caparo including sites in the West Midlands.
Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of Liberty House, said: “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. This marks a step change for the Liberty House because we are taking on strategically important capacity that will drive expansion in the years ahead. By investing to acquire speciality steels, we are casting a big vote of confidence in the future of British industry.”
Bimlendra Jha, chief executive of Tata Steel UK, added: “As a responsible owner, Tata Steel in the last couple of years has undertaken a transformation plan at speciality steels, including investing in a state-of-theart vacuum induction melting furnace, to ensure the business can have a sustainable future.
“We thank the employees, trade unions and management for their diligent hard work in the journey to turn around the business in difficult times and we wish them a successful future under new ownership.”