Tata Steel Europe to lay off 500 workers in UK

Tata Steel's long products business announced today, October 29, that it is planning to take some restructuring measures to strengthen its competitiveness, which will affect management and administrative functions at sites in Scunthorpe, Teesside and Workington, all in the UK, and could lead to the loss of around 500 jobs.
 
About 340 positions could be affected in Scunthorpe, 90 in Workington and 40 in Teesside, the company said.
 
The proposals come amid a prolonged downturn in demand for some of the key products made by the Scunthorpe-based business, including demand in the UK market for construction steel, which is about half of 2007 levels, according to the company statement.
 
Karl Koehler, CEO of Tata Steel's European operations, said, "European steel demand this year is expected to be only two-thirds of pre-crisis levels after falls in the past two years."
 
Michael Leahy, general secretary of Community and chairman of the UK Steel unions' Committee, said, "We are obviously very concerned to hear this news and are doing all we can to support those affected by the announcement. We recognise the business has been dealing with a downturn in some of its markets for the past five years. Nevertheless, today's news once again reflects the fragile state of our economy and the lack of any real impetus by government to support our manufacturing base."
 
Jon Bolton, director of Tata Steel's long product operations in Europe, said, "UK demand for construction steel has fallen further since we launched an improvement program at our Long Products business in 2011. This further market decline means we must now build on the work we have been doing to restore Long Products' ability to compete throughout the economic cycle. The proposed changes at our Workington engineering operations, meanwhile, are as a result of a shortfall in external projects."