Tata Steel said in a statement that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Klesch to sell its Long Products Europe unit.
About 6,500 people are employed at Long Products Europe and its distribution facilities which supply rails and such products as tubes and wire rods for industries including construction and excavation.
The proposed sale covers several British sites including Tata Steel's Scunthorpe steelworks, mills in Teesside, Dalzell and Clydebridge, an engineering workshop in Workington and a rail consultancy in York, in addition to operations in France and Germany.
"We have . . . decided to concentrate our resources mainly on our strip products activities, where we have greater cross-European production and technological synergies," said Karl Koehler, boss of Tata Steel's European operations, in the statement.
Founded in 1990, the Klesch Group describes itself as a global industrial commodities business specializing in the production and trading of chemicals, metal and oil.
According to its website, it employs 2,000 people in 17 countries around the world.
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