Tata Steel to axe 1,500 jobs in UK, blames construction slump and carbon laws
21 May 2011
Tata Steel Ltd, the world's seventh largest steel maker yesterday said that it will cut 1,500 jobs in the UK and invest £400 million over five years at its loss-making European long products division.
Tata Steel, which acquired Corus in 2007, will axe 1,200 workers at its Scunthorpe plant in North Lincolnshire and 300 at its Redcar plant in Teesside.
The steelmaker will close the Bloom and Billet Mill and associated steel caster, mothball the Queen Bess blast furnace, which will be kept in readiness for a market upturn and will review the operations of the Billet Caster.
Tata Steel employs 20,000 people in the UK, of which 7,000 are at the Scunthorpe plant and 1,800 at Teesside.
The steel maker said that despite saving on costs savings at its Long Products division during the global economic downturn including a radical restructuring of its Speciality Steels business, its Long Products business continued to make losses over the last two years.
Tata Steel blamed the continuing loss due to decline of orders from the construction sector.