Tata Steel has agreed to buy three Scandinavian service centres from Swedish steelmaker SSAB, the Indian steelmaker tells Kallanish.

The deal, approved by the European Commission, will see Tata’s European operation take on SSAB’s strip products service centres at Halmstad in Sweden and Naantali in Finland. Tata Steel will also acquire from SSAB the remaining 50% stake it does not already own in Norsk Stål Tynnplater AS, another strip products service centre based in Fredrikstad, Norway.

SSAB was required to sell the facilities as a condition of its 2014 takeover of Finland’s Rautaruukki. The transactions remain subject to approval from competition authorities in Norway, Sweden and Finland, and their implementation will follow these approvals, Tata says.

About 180 people are employed at the three centres – 50 at Norsk Stål Tynnplater, 70 people at Naantali and 60 at Halmstad, the steelmaker confirms. Combined annual throughput at the three units is 250,000 tonnes/year, Tata Steel tells Kallanish, but no value for the transaction has been disclosed.

Tata Steel is also retaining its 50% stake in Norsk Stål AS., the steelmaker confirms. The other 50% of the company is being acquired from SSAB by Leif Hübert Stål AS which, like Norsk Stål, is a Norwegian steel distribution business (see Kallanish 9 February).