Tata Steel, Britain offer more aid to steel town

Tata Steel will offer 3 million pounds ($4.62 million), to be matched by government, for job creation in Britain's Scunthorpe where its steel plant is to restructure, the two said in a joint statement.

Tata Steel, Britain's biggest steelmaker , may cut about 1,200 jobs as part of plans to restructure there.

"Tata Steel's regeneration arm UK Steel Enterprise has pledged 3 million pounds to support job creation in Scunthorpe, on top of 10 million pounds it has already earmarked to help regenerate UK steel communities over the next five years," the government and Tata Steel said.

The crisis in Britain's steel sector escalated further this week as Tata Steel blamed its decision to cut British jobs on a flood of cheap imports, particularly from China.

This month alone, over 4,000 UK steel jobs have been lost or are now at risk, with the country's steelmakers and unions pinning much of the blame on China.

China makes nearly half the world's 1.6 billion tonnes of steel. With growth slowing, it is expected to export a record 100 million tonnes of steel to world markets this year to help address its spare steelmaking capacity.

($1 = 0.6497 pounds)

(Reuters)