Tata Steel’s European operations are to cut over 900 jobs in its UK operations but will create 120 posts at the hot strip mill at Llanwern, Newport, South Wales.
600 of the jobs will be lost in South Wales, 500 at Tata’s integrated works at Port Talbot. Most of the job cuts are in management administration posts.
Tata is proposing changes to its finishing and distribution sites which will lead to the closure of 12 of these sites but an investment of £22M will be made in the remainder.
Other job cuts include 155 in Yorkshire, 120 in the West Midlands and 30 on Teesside. Tata Steel employs around 19000 in its UK business.
Despite the cuts, the Company has been making a £250M investment in Port Talbot, rebuilding No 4 Blast furnace − one of two blast furnaces at Port Talbot − which is scheduled to be completed in December, and refurbishing the hot strip mill at Llanwern, Newport which was idled for a second time earlier this year.
Tata say the cuts are necessary as the demand for steel in Europe had dropped by 25% since 2007 and was forecast to fall by another 10% this year.
Since Indian based Tata Steel acquired the Corus sites in UK and IJmuiden, the Netherlands in April 2007 its main sites at Scunthorpe, Teesside and IJmuiden have all been reorganised.