Essar Steel on Monday announced that it had acquired Servosteel, United Kingdom’s largest independent

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steel processor, for an undisclosed amo­unt. “Located in West Midlands, a major steel hub, the acquisition is in line with Essar Steel’s distribution strategy,” a statement issued by the company said.

Essar Steel International BV, a subsidiary of Essar Steel Holdings, concluded the deal. “Servosteel has a steel processing capacity of 500,000 tonnes per annum and is capable of processing the entire flat product range including hot roll coil, cold rolls coil, hot rolled pickled, galvanised and colour-coated products,” the spokesman said.

Servosteel, a Dudley-based steel service centre in the West Midlands, offers one-stop service for smooth clean service technology pickling, slitting and various individual custom tailored services.

With a global steel production capacity of 8.6 million per tonne per annum (mpta), Essar Steel, which is led by the Ruias, operates seven service centres in India, Indonesia and Canada with an aggregate capacity of over 3 million tonnes. The company sells its product in the automobile, white goods, shipbuilding and engineering industries.

This is the third major acquisition of the company after it bought the Essar-Minnesota, a US-based unit. Its second acquisition was in Ontario, Canada, where it bought Algoma Steel and raised its steel production from 2.4 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes since 2007, when both the companies were acquired.

“With our aggressive plans in India, as well as Asia and Americas, we aim to achieve a capacity of 14 mpta by 2011-12,” the company's statement added.