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Tata Board Meets To Consider UK Steel Bids

(c) Sky News 2016

The board of Indian steel giant Tata is meeting to weigh up bids for its business employing thousands of workers in the UK.

Prime Minister David Cameron said there had been an encouraging number of serious offers for the assets and that the Government was doing everything it could to help - though there were no guarantees of a successful conclusion to the process.

The board meeting in India comes as hundreds of steelworkers march in London to highlight the crisis in the industry - with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn there to promise his support in their fight for the industry's future.

Thousands of jobs have been lost in a series of plant closures as the sector buckles under pressure from cheap Chinese imports and unions want ministers to do more to fight off the threat.

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Business Secretary Sajid Javid and Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones have travelled to Mumbai to discuss prospects for the sale.

Tata is expected to whittle down the shortlist of bidders for the business from seven to two or three before settling on a buyer in the coming weeks.

The decision will seal the future for 11,000 jobs including 4,000 at the Port Talbot works in South Wales.

Mr Cameron said: "We continue to work towards trying to get a good outcome for Tata in South Wales, the sales process is under way, there has been an encouraging number of serious offers coming through.

"We have just got to stick at it and do everything we can to try to bring this to a successful conclusion.

"As I have always said, there are no guarantees, we can't guarantee this is going to work but we are doing everything we can."

Bidders include management buyout team Excalibur as well as metal tycoon Sanjeev Gupta's Liberty House.

Others reported to be interested are: private equity group Greybull Capital – which has already bought Tata's Scunthorpe steel plant; China's Hebei Iron and Steel; Leeds-based private equity fund Endless; JSW, India's second largest steel producer; and NUCOR, the largest steel maker in the US.