Steelmaker Corus has confirmed that it will axe 2,500 jobs in the UK and a further 1,000 worldwide as the global downturn sees demand fall by a third over the last year. Steel prices have also dropped by half over the last six months.
Corus was formed in 1999, when the remnants of the once great British Steel merged with Koninklijke Hoogovens, being taken over and run as a subsidiary of the Indian Tata Steel group in 2007.
A statement says that 600 jobs will go at the LLanwern plant, which will be ‘mothballed’ for later use, with a further 500 jobs being axed in Wales. A further 1400 jobs will be lost in other plants across the UK.
Corus say that the job cuts are ‘essential for the future of the business’, that the ’structural changes have been carefully considered’ and that the restructuring would improve it’s profits by £200m. The company has also looked to the government to help financially, with the senior officer of the GMB Union, John Wilson saying:
“It is essential that the UK government offers this industry the same support being offered to the banking sector because, just like banks, steel is the bedrock of our economy.”
Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite, said that his Union would not accept any compulsory redundancies, saying that while he accepts that Corus are facing difficulties, before the downturn the company had been making ‘extremely healthy profits’.
“Our members have supported Corus through good times and bad and now expect Corus to support them.”
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