Fears Tata Steel is preparing to announcing new wave of job cuts as ministers stage steel summit to help beleaguered industry
Up to a thousand job losses are feared at one of Britain’s biggest remaining steel plants as ministers and business chiefs hold a high-powered summit to discuss the in-crisis industry’s future.
It is understood that an announcement could come as soon as next week that Tata Steel will launch a restructuring focused on its plant in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, which employs a total of 3,000 staff, though more jobs could go elsewhere, potentially in Scotland.
With the steel summit still taking place, other media picked picked up on the Telegraph's exclusive, claiming the announcement would come on Tuesday.
News of the potential job losses comes in the week that the blast furnace and coke ovens at SSI’s steel plant in Redcar, Teesside, began to shut down after the company went into liquidation with the loss of more than 1,700 jobs, as first revealed by the Telegraph.
On Friday Business Secretary Sajid Javid will chair a summit in Rotherham – the home of another major Tata steel plant – to examine the issues which are driving the UK steel industry to breaking point.
A new announcement about further job losses in the sector would be politically embarrassing for the Government coming so soon after the showdown which will be attended by MPs, unions and business leaders.
The beginning of the end for British steelmaking
Gareth Stace, director of industry association Steel UK, said: “I hope the summit delivers just more than just talk. If we do not get firm action from the Government I am fearful there will be further casualties in the industry.
“The fact that ministers have taken the unusual step of calling for this summit is a sign of the seriousness of the situation faced by steel-makers in Britain. We need action.”
About 30,000 people are employed in the British steel industry and last year it contributed £9.5bn to the country’s economy with exports of £4.9bn.
So far this year almost 3,000 jobs have gone in the sector as British steel makers buckle under the pressure of cheap imports from China, high energy costs compounded by environmental levies, sterling's strength and business rates that are more onerous than those in competing nations.
There have also been calls for other sectors - such as construction - to commit to helping UK steel-makers.
As well as the recently announced losses at SSI in Redcar, earlier this year Tata cut 720 jobs at its speciality steel plant in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, and a further 250 agency staff went as the company mothballed another mill in Llanwern, Wales. Tata cited the “cripplingly high” cost of energy as a factor in the redundancies.
The Scunthorpe plant is seen as vital to British industry, holding important contracts including producing the steel used to make for Britain’s railways though Tata is understood to be doing a hard analysis of how it can be restructured to survive, either through restructuring or attracting new investors or even a buyer.
MP Nic Dakin, whose constituency covers the plant, said: “The workforce at Scunthorpe has done everything Tata has asked and produces some of the best steel in the world but the global steel industry is facing a perfect storm.
“It’s the job of the Government to step in in times of crisis. Scunthorpe has a positive past and will be positive again when the global economy picks up.”
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community union who represents workers at the Scunthorpe plant, said: "We hope this summit will draw public and government attention to this industry which is vital to British manufacturing but is in crisis."
A spokesman for Tata said: "We do not comment on rumour and speculation."
Source: thetelegraph.uk
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