Tata Steel will not sell a stake in its Teeside cast products unit to Marcegaglia and Dongkuk after a consortium including the two cancelled a contract to buy the plant’s products, a senior Tata group official said.
"There is no question of selling the plant to them now," J.J. Irani, a director of Tata Sons, the holding company for all Tata firms, told reporters at a steel conference on Wednesday.
Earlier in May, Tata Steel said its Corus unit may have to indefinitely suspend operations at its Teesside Cast Products plant in England, after a major contract was cancelled by a consortium including Italian steelmaker Marcegaglia and South Korea’s Dongkuk Steel.
In January, Marcegaglia and Dongkuk agreed to buy an 80 per cent stake in the Teeside unit, valuing it at an estimated $600 million.
Irani said he expected hot rolled coil prices stabilising at $375 to $400 a tonne and India steel demand rising 5-8 per cent this year despite a fall in global demand.
Source: Economic Times