Tata Steel Confirms Sale Falls Through

There's fresh uncertainty about thousands of jobs at Scunthorpe's steelworks - after Tata Steel confirmed to Viking News, that the company’s potential buyers have pulled out.

It's after the Klesch Group walked away from the sale, following speculation that they wanted to yesterday.

Tata confirmed it this morning, and released this statement:

"We note Mr Klesch's comments in the media about his intention to withdraw from further negotiations about the potential, sale of Tata Steel Long Products business and its associated distribution activities.”

"Tata Steel remains focused on supporting the Long Products business as it enters a new chapter as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Steel UK Ltd and will continue to seek a sustainable future for the business.”

"In their comments to the press the Klesch Group referred to the escalating challenges for the UK steel industry, which is facing rising volumes of imports and remains saddled with uncompetitive energy costs.”

"The appreciation in the value of sterling has made those marked challenges more acute.”

"Discussions with the Klesch Group have been going on since last year. They have been among a number of strategic options Tata Steel has been evaluating to find a sustainable basis for the Long Products business ever since the strategic decision was made to focus on its strip business across Europe.”

"The business started operating as a standalone, wholly owned subsidiary from August 2.”

"The standalone status for the long products business will also enable alternative strategic options to be assessed and progressed."

Scunthorpe MP Nic Dakin has been speaking to us about the shock decisions.

He said:

“Klesch have been interested and involved in taking over the Long Products Steel division of Tata, which includes the Scunthorpe plant for a number of months now. But they do have a track record of pulling out of interesting deals late on. They pulled out of the Milford Haven Oil refinery right at the last minute.”

“We live in challenging times for the Steel industry at the moment, and it’s been challenging since 2008. The workforce at Scunthorpe and the rest of Long products have delivered everything that management have asked of them. I’ve got confidence in the workforce and management of Tata to move forward positively, but it is in very challenging times."

“They’ve been living with a lack of certainty about the future ownership of Tata for some time, so it’s just another layer of uncertainty, and what people always want is certainty. What they know is that they’re good at their jobs, and they’re good at producing steel. We have to be positive about the future, but the Government does need to assist at difficult times like this.”