A Norwegian green steel group is in the running to buy Speciality Steels UK (SSUK), Britain’s third-biggest producer of the metal, six months after it collapsed into liquidation.
Sky News has learnt that Blastr, which is privately owned, is among a small number of parties which remain talks with the Official Receiver about a deal to buy SSUK, which operates from sites in Rotherham and Sheffield.
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Employing well over 1,000 people, SSUK was part of the metals empire of Sanjeev Gupta, the tycoon who is facing financial, legal and regulatory battles on a multitude of fronts.
The business was declared “hopelessly insolvent” by a judge last summer, and collapsed into compulsory liquidation.
Since then, a number of parties have stepped forward with proposals to rescue SSUK.
Blastr is run by Mark Bula, a steel industry veteran who has worked at the American companies Nucor and Big River Steel.
Both businesses are said to have successfully disrupted traditional blast furnace production with electric arc furnace steelmaking technology.
Based in Norway, Blastr was set up to create an iron and steel value chain in the UK and Europe, with a low-cost, globally competitive and environmentally sustainable footprint.
Sources close to the situation said Blastr had retained Evercore, the investment bank, to advise on its interest in SSUK.
Evercore has also been engaged by the UK government to advise on its strategy for the steel industry, including options which could lead to the merger of SSUK with other sector assets.
One insider said Blastr was scouring the industry for strategic acquisitions which could enable it to deliver ultra-low emission iron and steel at the lowest cost in the UK and Europe.
Blastr is understood to have drawn up plans to move its holding company from Norway to the UK, although it is unclear whether that move is dependent upon a successful acquisition of SSUK.
A deal for Blastr to buy Mr Gupta’s former assets would probably involve a special purpose vehicle being set up, the insider added.
Blastr joins rival bidders including Arabian Gulf Steel Industries (AGSI), which is headquartered in Abu Dhabi, and 7 Steel UK, owned by Czech energy tycoon Pavel Tykac and which last year bought the Allied Steel and Wire site in Cardiff from Spanish firm Celsa.
Whitehall insiders said a decision about a preferred bidder could be made within weeks, although they cautioned that it was plausible that none of the shortlisted suitors might be able to strike a satisfactory deal.
The financing of any of the bids remains unclear.
Last month, Sky News reported that AGSI was rumoured to be keen to secure financial backing from Britain’s National Wealth Fund to support a takeover of SSUK and fund a resumption of steelmaking at its sites in Yorkshire.
Mr Gupta himself had secured backing from third parties including Blackrock, the world’s biggest asset manager, although the prospect of him being chosen to repurchase the business appears to be extremely remote.
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A spokesman for Blastr declined to comment on Thursday.
An Insolvency Service spokesperson told Sky News earlier this month: “”We can confirm that the Official Receiver continues to progress bids for the sale of Speciality Steel UK.
“This process is ongoing, with the aim to complete a sale at the earliest opportunity.”
The sale process for SSUK comes during a period of broader uncertainty for the British steel sector.
British Steel, the Scunthorpe-based producer which is legally owned by China’s JIngye Group but which was seized by the government last April amid a threat to close its remaining blast furnaces, is costing taxpayers a daily seven-figure sum to subsidise.
So far, the government has spent hundreds of millions of pounds on running the company.
The government’s move prevented the immediate loss of more than 3,000 jobs, although there remain questions about the company’s viability as a standalone entity.
In 2024, ministers agreed to provide £500m in grant funding to Tata Steel, the Indian company, to install an electric arc furnace at its Port Talbot steelworks in Wales.
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The new facility is expected to be operational in 2027, but has been bitterly opposed by trade unions infuriated that the new funding was effectively used to drive through thousands of redundancies at the plant.
