On June 25, UK-based steelmaker Corus, the European subsidiary of the Indian steel giant Tata Steel, announced a second round of layoffs due to expectations that European steel demand will take time to recover.
According to a statement released by Corus, the company will lay off an additional 2,045 employees on top of the 3,500 job cuts already announced in January this year, bringing the total number of announced job cuts since the collapse in steel demand to 14.4 percent of its worldwide workforce.
Commenting on the cuts, Corus said, "The consultation process identifies 2,045 jobs as being at risk. Some 1,500 of these are in the company's production facilities: about 800 at the engineering steels sites, mainly Rotherham and Stocksbridge; about 370 in Corus Tubes in the UK and the Netherlands, and about 375 at downstream rolling and finishing plants in Teesside and Scotland. The company is also opening consultations on 500 white-collar jobs throughout the Corus Long Products division, the majority at Scunthorpe."
In the second quarter Corus is still operating its steel mills at 47 percent below their full production capacity. As SteelOrbis reported in April, the company said that it would seek voluntary layoffs but could not rule out compulsory redundancies.
Corus CEO Kirby Adams stated: "We understand the difficulties these job losses are likely to cause our employees and their families. Any recovery in Europe appears to be some time off, so it is vital that we take this proportionate and responsible action now. We have to achieve long-term, sustainable competitiveness in a global and over-supplied steel market and are determined to do so by focusing on the quality of the products and services we offer our customers."
Corus is Europe's second largest steelmaker by volume.