Tata Steel has laid out a capital expenditure of Rs 3,000 crore for its European operations as its focus is to make the business “stronger”, the company’s CEO and managing director T. V. Narendran said.

He made the remarks while responding to a question related to the company’s strategy for the European business, which Tata Steel could not sell earlier because of multiple reasons.

“For (financial year) 2022, we have guided that our capex will be... Rs 3,000 crore for Europe. It is more for sustenance capex, environment related capex, capex on the product mix, enhancement that we are doing particularly in the Netherlands,” he told PTI.

In Europe, he said, the company’s operation is being separated into Tata Steel Netherlands and Tata Steel UK which would help in cost efficiencies and management focus. The European business this year will be cash positive in terms of EBIDTA and PAT. It will be a strong year for European businesses as well.

Tata Steel’s focus is on the performance of the European business. “We are not actively looking for any buyer. If you make the business stronger, that helps with the value of the business,” Narendran said, replying to a question on whether the plans to sell the business have been dropped.

Speaking on the sale of its assets in Europe, the CEO further said it was SSAB which had reached out to Tata Steel. “We had not gone looking for them. The only time when we were actively working on it was when the Thyssenkrupp proposal was there.”

SSAB was interested, they pursued then dropped it. Tata Steel is under no pressure to take any hasty action. The company will continue to focus on performance of the business, he said.

According to the company, steel deliveries at Tata Steel Europe increased 17.4 per cent year-on-year to 2.33 million tonnes in the April-June quarter.