Tata Steel writes down value of European assets

Tata Steel says impairment arises from industry’s ‘supply imbalance’

Tata Steel: A supply glut in China has hamstrung the industry even as demand has started to recover elsewhere. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/PA Wire

India's Tata Steel has written down the value of its European steel assets for the second time in as many years, adding to its already long list of woes and highlighting the struggles facing steelmakers.

In a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday, the steel division of the Tata conglomerate added a $785 million (€686 million) charge to the $1.6 billion writedown it took in 2013.

Tata said the non-cash impairment was taken on the back of “supply imbalance facing the global steel industry, significant volatility in iron ore and coal prices in the past 12 months and the current view of long term forecast of steel and its raw material prices.”

A supply glut in China has hamstrung the industry even as demand has started to recover elsewhere. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015)