Voestalpine not keen on Tata, Thyssenkrupp assets

FRANKFURT, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Speciality steelmaker Voestalpine is not interested in buying assets from Germany's Thyssenkrupp or India's Tata Steel , should regulatory conditions for their merged steel venture make them available to rivals.

"Expansion in steel has for a long time not been part of our strategy," Voestalpine chief executive officer Wolfgang Eder told reporters on Thursday at a briefing in Frankfurt.

Instead, he said the company was "intensely" looking at growth in its rail, aviation, car and oil and gas industry technologies and was expanding its global presence in 3D manufacturing.

However, current prices for acquisitions were too high for strategic investors, he said.

Eder also said Washington had granted around 4,000 exemptions from steel import tariffs out of a total of around 6,000 deliveries that Voestalpine has applied for. Only around 400 had been rejected so far.

"The U.S. are by the way not the main problem in the tariff war," he said.

"I see more critical impact from the reactions in other regions, as those then lead to counter-actions again," he added, referring especially to tool steel.

Washington last May announced tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminium from the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

Voestalpine has said that only up to around three percent of its revenue could be affected by the U.S. tariff move. (Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Mark Potter)