Revival misses North as Corus axe falls

Aug 25 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

STEEL group Corus has started to cut jobs at its engineering division, including 47 on Teesside.

The redundancy notices started landing as Corus said it was restarting idle facilities elsewhere in the UK as the steel price firmed.

Last January it announced proposals to restructure its engineering services, which would lead to the loss of the 47 jobs.

A spokesman said: “Corus Northern Engineering Services previously provided engineering services to both Corus and external companies, but following the implementation of the restructuring, it is exiting its external work. This will allow us to refocus engineering services on supporting Corus’s core activities – producing high quality steel at all of its steelmaking sites within the Long Products Division.”

He said: “All the people affected by this restructuring have been fully consulted with since then and we are dealing with any outstanding issues arising from this. We are making the job reductions in line with the proposals announced in January.

“The people affected by the restructuring are leaving the business at the appropriate time.” Meanwhile, unions are due this week to meet management to discuss plans for the Teesside Cast Products business. The site has orders until the end of September as work continues to secure the long-term future for TCP and its 2,000 workers. It follows the collapse of a 10-year offtake agreement last April, which triggered redundancy talks.

On Thursday parent company Tata reports quarterly results for the Anglo-Dutch subsidiary as the global steel market continues to show signs of recovery. Corus is among those preparing to bring steel plants back to life. ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, is preparing to relight fires at blast furnaces from Ohio to Ukraine, while Corus is reviving strip steelmaking capacity at Llanwern in South Wales.

This month, it emerged demand for construction strength steel in Asia could stave off job losses at Teesside’s Lackenby beam mill, where earlier this year the company announced that 150 out of more than 470 jobs would go.

It is increasing the number of shifts from 15 to 19.5 after a surge in demand. The mill makes steel columns and beams.