AvestaPolarit rescheduling closure of Degerfors again

AvestaPolarit rescheduling closure of Degerfors again

Finnish steelmaker AvestaPolarit declared that contrary to previous desicions, they have determined not to close rolling mill Degerfors Stainless after the planned closure of the meltshop to take place in September 2003. As previously reported in SteelOrbis, in order to terminate longs production at its Degerfors Stainless unit AvestaPolarit planned to shut down the meltshop in September, transfer long products line to Sheffield and hire Corus for rolling blooms. Meanwhile, the billet and bar rolling mill was going to continue its operations for some while after the closure. However, AvestaPolarit reversed its desicion due to the proposal given by local management at Degerfors to continue operations which has now been approved by the company's management. The new unit, which AvestaPolarit is aiming to set up during autumn, creating job opportunuties for about 50 retained employees, will launch production by October and have an annual capacity close to the current level of around 50'000 tons. Feedstock for this new billet and bar mill will be supplied by AvestaPolarit's meltshop in Sheffield. Following this desicion, total number of redundancies will be brought down to 175 instead of 330 announced back in August 2001. It is obvious that Degerfors has created a good opportunity with further development both in hot rolled plate and long products by expanding its operations at the site.