Theresa May cancels meet with Tata Steel top brass during India visit: Report

British Prime Minister Theresa May has reportedly cancelled her meeting with top executives of Tata Steel Ltd during her visit to India quoting her tight schedule during the trip. 

UK PM arrived in India on Sunday night and is scheduled to hold trade and defence talks with her counterpart PM Narendra Modi on Monday. 

According to a report in Reuters, British PM May was supposed to meet Tata executives to talk about the future of its British steel operations.

“I had hoped to be able to meet the key people from Tata while I was in India, sadly the schedules don’t allow for me to do that on this particular visit but there are regular contacts between the government and Tata Steel,” May told reporters on the plane to India.

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“There continue to be those regular contacts to ensure that we maintain, as has been maintained so far, that steel production in the UK,” she added. 

In March, Tata Steel put its British steel operations on sale following heavy losses linked to a flood of cheap Chinese imports and low demand in the region. 

The process was suspended in July because of uncertainty following the June Brexit vote. 

The company has since said it is exploring opportunities for a partnership for its entire European steel business, and Germany’s biggest steelmaker Thyssenkrupp has said it is in talks with Tata, the reports said. 

Tata’s former chairman Cyrus Mistry, who was ousted in a boardroom coup last month, is due to take part in a CEO forum with May during her visit.