Tata Steel said on Tuesday that it has agreed to sell its pipe mills in the north of England to UK-based metals and industrial group Liberty House for an undisclosed sum, Reuters reported.
Tata Steel, Britain's largest steelmaker, has been selling off parts of its UK business since last year, when it announced talks to merge its British and European steel assets with those of Germany's Thyssenkrupp, the report said.
"With this sale, Tata Steel UK will complete its portfolio restructuring to focus on the strip products supply chain linked to Port Talbot," Bimlendra Jha, CEO of Tata Steel UK, told Reuters.
"The sale is also an important step towards developing a more sustainable future for the rest of our UK business," he said.
Despite the sale of the 42 and 84-inch pipe mills, Tata Steel will continue to be the largest steelmaker in the UK. It will employ almost 8,500 people in the UK, manufacturing advanced products for sectors like automotive and construction.
In February, Tata signed a 100 million pound deal to sell its speciality steel business to Liberty House, saving 1,700 jobs, mostly in South Yorkshire, northern England.
Under Tuesday's deal, Tata retained ownership of a tube mill in Hartlepool that is supplied with steel coils from the European steel assets that it wants to retain and merge with Thyssenkrupp.
The Hartlepool pipe mills make heavy-duty steel pipe for the oil and gas sector.
Tata, whose UK business is centred on the steelworks in Port Talbot, Wales, said it will invest 1 million pounds ($1.29 million) in the Hartlepool tube mill, which employs 270 people.
Privately-owned Liberty, which plans to list some of its businesses in 2018, has been snapping up distressed steel assets in Britain and around the world, including in the United States and Australia.
Liberty, which operates together with energy and commodities business SIMEC under the $9.4 billion Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance, said it is in talks to secure a support package to recruit more staff for the pipe mills business.
Gupta's Liberty House is one of the largest industrial employers in the UK with a workforce of nearly 5,000 people. Following Tuesday's deal, Tata remains the largest UK steelmaker with a workforce of 8,500 people.
Tata Steel has invested more than £1.6 billion in its UK business since acquiring Corus in 2007, including £100m over the last year to enable advanced steel manufacturing in a number of UK sites.
