Hundreds of manufacturing jobs were plunged into jeopardy today as Liberty Steel announced a fresh wave of cuts.
A total of 440 roles are under threat as the firm plans to mothball its site at West Bromwich in the West Midlands, and stop producing steel at its plant in Newport, South Wales.
Operations at Rotherham, South Yorks, will be scaled back as the firm turns its “focus on high value alloy steel production at Speciality Steel UK sites in Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Brinsworth”.
Up to 185 posts could go at Rotherham, 121 at Newport, 99 at West Bromwich and 35 in Tredegar, South Wales.
Liberty’s chief transformation officer Jeffrey Kabel said: “Refocusing our operations will set the right platform for Liberty Steel UK’s high-quality manufacturing businesses to adapt quickly to challenging market realities.
“We remain committed to our longer-term growth plans in the UK including our plan to grow Rotherham into a two-million tonne green steel hub.
“While our action is expected to regrettably impact the roles of some of our workforce we will provide a level of guaranteed salary and out placement opportunities through our unique workforce solutions programme as an alternative to redundancy.”
The firm said in a statement “These actions together with the idling of Liberty Performance Steels in West Bromwich and the reconfiguration of Liberty Steel Newport into a storage, distribution and trading hub, may potentially impact up to 440 roles across the business.
“The company will consult with employee representatives, trade unions and UK Government throughout the process.”
The cuts will be a huge blow to the struggling industry, which has repeatedly issued warnings about its future as it battles sky-high energy costs.
Community steelworkers' union national officer Alun Davies said: "This announcement is a body blow to Liberty Steel’s loyal UK workforce, who couldn’t have done more to get the company through an exceptionally challenging period.
"The consultation on these proposals must be meaningful and the unions will be scrutinising the detail of plans to idle Newport, West Bromwich and Tredegar, including Liberty’s commitment to restart the plants when conditions allow.
"Government must play their part, stop the dithering and act to deliver the competitive energy prices our industry so desperately needs.
"Steelworkers have had enough of warm words, it’s past time for government to decide whether it wants a steel industry in this country."
Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: "This is devastating news for Liberty steelworkers, their families and the community built around this proud industry.
"Endless sticking plasters from the Conservatives have left our UK steel sector on the brink.
"Instead of finding a long-term solution, successive Conservative governments have lurched from crisis and bailouts with no plan to keep UK steel internationally competitive or deliver a return on taxpayers' investment."
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Steel, said urged the Government to "wake up to the importance of the steel industry and its workers".
He said: "The world will use more steel in the decades ahead than we do today, and in the age of Putin's invasion and China's aggression we desperately need steelmaking capacity here in Britain.”
UK Steel director-general Gareth Stace said: “There will naturally be concern regarding the 440 jobs potentially impacted, but this is unfortunately an ongoing risk that accompanies a persistently uncompetitive business environment here in the UK, further exacerbated by global supply chain difficulties.
“High energy prices have played an important role in the decisions announced today, with long-standing uncompetitive electricity prices having constrained UK investment and steel production for some time.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman said: “Obviously it will be concerning for workers at Liberty Steel.
“We are committed to ensuring a sustainable and competitive future for the UK steel sector and we want to work closely with the industry to achieve this.
“Alongside that, we will continue to provide extensive support to the sector, worth £800million since 2013, on top of the energy bill relief scheme.”
Earlier this week, steelworkers raised fears for the sector’s long-term viability amid Tory plans to slash help with energy costs.
The Government is curbing support for sectors battling power prices, which surged after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
While heavy energy-using industries like glass, ceramics and steelmakers will get a larger discount than other firms, critics said it would still leave British companies at a disadvantage compared with foreign rivals.
Community steelworkers’ union general secretary Roy Rickhuss said at the time: “The Government’s decision to gamble on the future of the steel industry by weakening its energy support scheme is putting at risk tens of thousands of jobs in the industry and supply chain.
“Our steel industry cannot succeed if we continue paying twice as much for energy as our EU competitors, and our industry cannot decarbonise if there is no partnership with government.
“Britain needs its steel and our industry needs a government that backs it with actions, not empty promises.”
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015.
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