UK business secretary travels to India to save steel jobs

Tata Steel employs around 15,000 workers in the United Kingdom across plants in Port Talbot, Rotherham, Corby, Shotton and Teesside.

Tata Steel UK is expected to announce that it intends to put plans to sell most of its UK business on hold, including the Port Talbot site.

One of the biggest obstacles to a sale is the legacy of the British Steel Pension fund, which Tata inherited when it bought the business in 2007.

Javid will be flying to India tonight ahead of a Tata board meeting tomorrow.

Tata Steel may “pause” its plans to sell off most of troubled United Kingdom units, including the mammoth Port Talbot steelworks in Wales, as Britain’s business minister is set to hold talks with the senior management of the Indian steel giant in Mumbai to achieve a long-term solution. In addition to demanding guarantees over the long-term future of Port Talbot, Unite said it would be seeking further detail and assurances from Tata and prospective buyers over the sale of the speciality steel and tube business.

UK’s once-great steel industry has been ravaged by high energy costs, inefficient output and a flood of cheap Chinese exports. Up to seven parties have submitted bids or expressed an interest, though some bidders are getting cold feet after the referendum.

The news channel claims he has an “unassailable lead” over the other contenders, including a management buyout team, Excalibur Steel UK. Its specialty steel and tubes business together employ some 2,000 people, meaning the fate of another 9,000 steel jobs and thousands more jobs indirectly related to steelmaking is now uncertain.

Kinnock said: “Steel workers and their families have been put through hell over the last weeks and months, and they will be forgiven for greeting these reports with a degree of scepticism, and perhaps even an element of anger”.

After an initial sense of urgency to offload the loss making business, Tata has recently adopted a more relaxed approach to determining its future, as government incentives to keep the business going have come in thick and fast.

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