OREANDA-NEWS. UK-based steel producer Liberty House reached a deal with the Scottish government today to acquire global steelmaker Tata's Scottish plate mills, Dalzell and Clydebridge.

The government has agreed to purchase the mills from Tata for immediate resale to Liberty, for the same amount, as outlined by first minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday.

"Clydebridge and Dalzell will fit well into our vision for an integrated, flexible and sustainable steel sector," Liberty House managing director Sanjeev Gupta said.

The Dalzell mill rolls slab into steel plate, while the Clydebridge facility further processes the plate, using a quench and tempering technique.

Tata's European long products division in October announced plans to mothball all of its UK plate production capacity at Scunthorpe, Dalzell and Clydebridge — a combined 1mn t/yr — in response to "extremely challenging market conditions".

But the two facilities caught the attention of Liberty, which has been rapidly expanding its steel business.

Tata is still in negotiations over the potential sale of the rest of its European long products business to investment firm Greybull Capital, it said.