TATA Steel UK has signed a deal to sell two of its Hartlepool pipe mills to steel investment Liberty House Group, saving more than 140 jobs in the process.

The sale agreement covers the 42-inch and 84-inch pipe mills, also known as the Submerged Arc Weld (SAW) mills, where about 140 people work in the manufacture of gas and oil pipelines.

Those employees are expected to transfer over to Liberty House under a TUPE agreement in the comnig months. A Tata spokesman told The Northern Echo that while no on the record guarantee could be made about jobs the firm expects the deal will effectively safeguard the 140-odd posts that have been plagued by uncertainty for the last two years. 

It ends a long-running saga during which Tata has sought to offload parts of its North-East business following the slump in global steel prices. 

Last year, Tata sold ts loss-making Long Products division to investor Greybull Capital for £1 to ease some of the burden caused by Chinese dumping, lower prices and higher energy costs. 

Greybull has since renamed Long Products, which employs hundreds across the North-East, and includes the Teesside Beam Mill, near Redcar, as British Steel.

Tata Steel said today that it will retain its 20-inch tube mill in Hartlepool, where a further 270 people work. The 20-inch mill makes tubes for a range of markets, including construction, infrastructure and machinery.

To further strengthen the 20-inch mill, Tata Steel has pledged to make a £1 million investment to increase its capability to make high-strength steel tubes. The 20-inch mill is supplied with steel coils from Tata Steel’s European steelworks and is part of its strip products supply chain.

Bimlendra Jha, CEO of Tata Steel UK, said: “As a responsible seller we have worked long and hard to find a sustainable future for the 42- and 84-inch pipe mills. With this sale, Tata Steel UK will complete its portfolio restructuring to focus on the strip products supply chain linked to Port Talbot. The sale is also an important step towards developing a more sustainable future for the rest of our UK business.”

Both parties will be working to complete consultations with employees and trade unions, as well as the transfer of supplier and customer contracts. The transaction is expected to be completed within the next few months.

Tata Steel will continue to be the largest steelmaker in the UK following the sale of the 42- and 84-inch pipe mills. It will employ almost 8,500 people in the UK, manufacturing advanced products for sectors like automotive and construction.

Tata Steel has invested more than £1.6 billion in its UK business since acquiring Corus in 2007, including £100m over the last year to enable advanced steel manufacturing in a number of UK sites.