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Tata Steel is set to acquire service centres in Sweden, Finland and Norway as part of its European operation’s strategy of focusing on diversified value-added, higher margin products.
Tata Steel has received European Commission approval to acquire the three strip products service centres from Swedish and US steel producer SSAB, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
These include a service centre at Halmstad in Sweden and one at Naantali in Finland, as well as the 50 percent that Tata Steel doesn’t already own in another service centre in Fredrikstad, Norway. The deals still await regulatory approval from Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish competition authorities.
SSAB was forced to sell the three service centres as a condition for Europe’s competition authority approving its takeover of Rautaruukki, a Finnish company it acquired last year.
Neither SSAB nor Tata Steel have revealed the acquisition price of the service centres.
The acquisition will expand Tata Steel’s presence in the Nordic region – a region which it has had a presence in for a number of years, and includes an electrical steel production facility in Sweden and a 50 percent stake in a Norwegian steel distribution company, Norsk Staal.
The three service centres employ 180 people and supply steel to the automotive, construction electrical and heavy and light manufacturing sectors.
“Improving our local processing capability will significantly enhance our product offering and service levels to customers,” Karl Koehler, CEO of Tata Steel’s European operations, said in a statement on Thursday.
The acquisitions can be seen as part of the European operation’s strategy – in place since 2011 – of focusing increasing on high-value added products tailored to specific customer needs, as part of a wider strategy to combat the Europe-wide downturn in demand for low margin, generic steel products. Differentiated products now account for over a third of its sales in Europe.
Last year, Tata Steel’s European operations released 30 new products, including a new range of steels for lightweight vehicles.
Earlier this month announced the release of Celsius® 420, a product to help speed up building work in the construction industry.
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