Tata Steel Europe has strongly denied reports that it will sell its UK-based asset to Chinese steel giant Jingye.
This weekend numerous reports appeared in the British press indicating that Chinese steel company Hebei Jingye Group had expressed interest in acquiring Tata Steel's flat steelmaking asset, Port Talbot.
Tata Steel called this information "speculative" in a comment to Fastmarkets on Monday October 5.
"We would like to clarify that this is speculative and untrue," Tata Steel's spokesperson told Fastmarkets.
Jingye Group could not be reached for comment during Asian working hours on Monday.
Tata Steel's Port Talbot steelworks, based in South Wales, is the United Kingdom's largest steelmaker. It has a capacity to produce about 5 million tonnes per year of pig iron and 4.9 million tpy of crude steel. The asset manufactures hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil.
Earlier this year,
Jingye Group purchased UK's struggling long steelmaking asset British Steel from Greybull Capital, an entrepreneurial investment group. British Steel was formerly a part of Tata Steel's Long Products Europe division and was
sold to Greybull capital in 2016.