Iron and steel making operations at a United Kingdom plant formerly owned by Tata Steel are to be mothballed with a loss of 1,700 jobs, SSI United Kingdom, part of Thailand’s Sahaviriya Steel Industries, said on Monday.
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GMB national officer David Hulse said the news was absolutely devastating.
Some 1,700 workers will lose their jobs, on top of around 2,000 contractors who were told to pack up two weeks ago.
The Redcar coke ovens and power station will continue to operate, the company said.
A statement from the company said: “This decision has had to be taken against a continuing background of poor steel trading conditions across the globe and the consequential severe deterioration in steel prices experienced during the course of 2015, together with the view that this is unlikely to change in the short term”.
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community union, said: “Steel making on Teesside must have a future and our fight to save our steel will continue”.
It added it would soon start consultations with trade unions and employee representatives.
SSI United Kingdom business director Cornelius Louwrens said: “This is an extremely sad day for all of us at SSI United Kingdom”.
I’m asking everyone in this hall, everyone across the United Kingdom – stand up for this industry, stand up for our families, to save our steel.
Devastating news. #SSI announce they will mothball the site.
A debate about the steel production on Teesside was added to the agenda at the urging of party activists in Redcar.
“Failure to do so would mark a tipping point for this vital industry which is the foundation of the success of so many other manufacturing sectors”.
British unions say that if SSI United Kingdom fails it could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds in redundancy and clean-up costs.
“The Prime Minister said his Government would do “everything we can” to support the United Kingdom steel industry”.
She also accused SSI of not treating workforce and the local supply chain fairly.
George Osborne’s visit to China to drum up support for infrastructure investment will also be scrutinised in the context of SSI’s announcement with United Kingdom steel firms having raised concerns over Chinese imports flooding the United Kingdom market.
The Redcar plant, on the coast near the industrial town of Middlesbrough, is in an economically deprived region of Britain, where locals fear the loss of thousands more jobs indirectly related to steelmaking.
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True, the government can’t intervene whenever there are significant job losses (otherwise known as the “State Aid” defence), but there needs to be hope that everything is being done to protect these historic industries from dying out completely.
