British Steel Limited

British Steel Limited

Industry	Steel
Founded	2016
Headquarters	England/France
Products	long products
Number of employees	4,000
Parent	Greybull Capital
Website	www.britishsteel.co.uk

British Steel Limited is a long steel products business founded in 2016 from assets acquired from Tata Steel Europe by Greybull Capital. The business' primary steel production site is at the Scunthorpe Steelworks, with rolling facilities at Skinningrove (UK), Teesside (UK), and Hayange (France).

History

In the 2010s, due to combination of reduced demand in Europe (see Financial crisis of 2007–08 and Great Recession) and high company indebtidness Tata Group began a sales process of its long products division of Tata Steel Europe to Klesch Group.^[1] In 2014 the long products division employed c. 6,500, and was operating at about 60% of its 5 million ton pa capacity; the division included primary production at Scunthorpe steelworks; mills in Teesside (Teesside beam mill, Skinningrove and Darlington special profiles); France (Hayange rail mill); Scotland (Dalzell and Clydebridge), and other assets including the Immingham Bulk Terminal.^[2] In late 2014 estimates for the value of the property were c. $1.4 billion.^[3] In August 2015 talks on the acquisition ended unsuccessfully, with Klesch citing energy prices and (dumping of) Chinese steel imports as factors against the sale.^[4][5] The Scottish facilities were mothballed in late 2015, and then sold to Liberty House Group in 2016.^[6][7]

In late 2015 a prelimary agreement was made with Greybull Capital for the sale of the long products division;^[8] the sale was agreed on 11 April 2016 for a nominal £1, with Greybull taking over assets and liabilities of the division. At takeover the division employed approximately 5,000 persons, predominately in the UK.^[9] The sale was completed at the end of May 2016, with the resulting business renamed British Steel.^{[10][note 1]} As part of takeover new agreements were made with workers and unions, including a wage cut, end to bonus schemes, and end of a final salary pension scheme; the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) was not included in the sale. Greybull stated that at acquisition the business was profitable.^[12]

Operations

At creation in 2016 the business consisted of

• Scunthorpe Steelworks, England – primary blast furnace based production – bloom, billet, sections, slab, rail and wire rod
• Teesside Steelworks, England (Teesside Beam Mill) - heavy sections
• Skinningrove Steelworks, England – special sections and crane rail
• former Sogerail plant, Hayange, France – railway rails
• An engineering workshop in Workington

Notes

References