News: Corus to restructure Rotherham sites

Corus, Europe's second biggest steel producer has today announced a series of strategic and structural measures which have been brought forward as a result of the economic slowdown. One of the key initiatives is asset restructuring - "mothballing of the Llanwern hot strip mill; restructuring of engineering steels into two businesses - a specialty steels business at Stocksbridge fed by electric furnace steel from Rotherham and a bar business at Rotherham with steel sourced from the integrated works at Scunthorpe; and streamlining of downstream facilities in Distribution, Building Systems and Tubes." This will also put around 3,500 jobs at risk around the company as a whole. Corus currently employs about 42,000 people, around 1,700 in Rotherham. Corus said that it will continue to discuss with employee representatives options to match payroll costs with the new production and demand levels and that "the company will make every effort to achieve the job losses through voluntary redundancies, whilst retaining critical skills in the business. A comprehensive range of redundancy packages and outplacement support services will be made available to those leaving the company. There will be full consultations with employees and their representatives throughout the process." Corus CEO Philippe Varin said: "The structural changes we are proposing today have been carefully considered. They are essential for the future of the business. The company will keep its focus on priority areas such as training, research and product development, which, together with today's initiative, will ensure Corus is in the best possible shape to compete strongly in the future."

Corus website
Rotherham