S Kalyana Ramanathan / London August 21, 2009
Tata Steel-owned Corus Group plans to reopen its Llanwern hot-rolled strip plant in South Wales temporarily to meet fresh demand.
This 3-million-tonne annual capacity plant was mothballed in January this year, resulting in 528 job losses.
However, according to sources, the temporary re-opening of the plant next month will not result in any reinstatement of lost jobs.
Instead, the company plans to deploy workers from its existing plants to run this plant on a temporary basis. In January 2009, when the plant was closed, it was left with 850 workers after the job losses.
“This is not a full-fledged steel plant and it can be started and closed based on demand,” an industry source said. This plant in Llanwern near Newport is one of Corus’ two plants in the region, the other being in Port Talbot. Even the temporary reopening of the plant is not expected to see it achieve its full capacity of 3 million tonnes in production.
“The plant may be opened (next month) for a couple of weeks and closed again and opened again, based on demand,” said the source.
Though unions have welcomed this temporary reopening of the plant, they have sought a meeting with the plant managers to understand the long-term implication of this development.
Corus’ Teesside Cast Products plant in the North East too was threatened with a possible mothballing in May this year, when a four-member buyer group withdrew from a 10-year contract, halfway through.
However, this plant is expected to be kept running till at least September this year after some fresh orders were secured.
Though the mandatory 90-day consultation period with the union was completed in August, the plant has been kept operational.
Meanwhile, Corus is pursuing legal recourse to enforce the contract that was signed by a four-member consortium to buy nearly 80 per cent of this plant’s output till 2014.
The consortium of four buyers who withdrew from the 10-year buying contract are Marcegaglia of Italy, Dongkuk of South Korea, the Swiss-headquartered Duferco and Alvory of Uruguay.
The decision to stop buying steel from the Teesside plant was taken due to a fall in the global prices of steel.
Showing posts with label Corus Group. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Corus Group. Show all posts
Friday, August 21, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
366 more jobs to go in Corus' Scunthorpe plant
S Kalyana Ramanathan / London July 10, 2009
These are in addition to the 500 job cuts announced last month
Corus Group, Europe’s second-largest steel maker and a subsidiary of Tata Steel, today announced an additional 366 job cuts at its North East plant at Scunthorpe. A spokesperson clarified that these were in addition to the 500 white-collar job losses announced for this plant last month.
In a statement issued today, Corus said 366 jobs have been identified as being at risk as part of its proposals to improve the competitiveness of this unit by aligning employment costs with anticipated steel demand. “Consultations with employees and their representatives have begun on the Scunthorpe site today. Wherever possible the company will seek voluntary redundancies, while at the same time ensuring that critical skills are retained. Support packages will be available to those leaving the company,” the company said.
Just two weeks earlier, Tata Steel, as part of its 2008-09 financial statement, had said 2,000 jobs were at risk, that included 500 white collar job losses through Corus’ Long Products division, the majority of which could be at Scunthorpe.
Reacting to today’s announcement, John Wilson, senior officer of the GMB labour union, said: "With this further announcement, there is an even greater need for urgency from the government to secure this bedrock manufacturing industry and reassure the local community.”
Scunthorpe Telegraph, a regional newspaper, quoting Scunthorpe Corus steelworks’ director Sean Lyons said, "We have been working hard with the trade unions to come up with a cost-saving solution that would have avoided job reductions and a proposal was put to Scunthorpe employees in May. Unfortunately, union representatives decided that they were unable to ballot their members on the cost saving proposal. We have had to take this urgent action to align our employment costs to current and forecast demand for our products. Wherever possible we will seek to utilise volunteers, but we must ensure that the capability of plants or departments is not jeopardised.”
With its main steel-making operations primarily in the UK and the Netherlands, Corus supplies steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging, mechanical engineering and other markets worldwide. tata acquired Corus in 2007, making the latter one of the top 10 steel producers in the world.
These are in addition to the 500 job cuts announced last month
Corus Group, Europe’s second-largest steel maker and a subsidiary of Tata Steel, today announced an additional 366 job cuts at its North East plant at Scunthorpe. A spokesperson clarified that these were in addition to the 500 white-collar job losses announced for this plant last month.
In a statement issued today, Corus said 366 jobs have been identified as being at risk as part of its proposals to improve the competitiveness of this unit by aligning employment costs with anticipated steel demand. “Consultations with employees and their representatives have begun on the Scunthorpe site today. Wherever possible the company will seek voluntary redundancies, while at the same time ensuring that critical skills are retained. Support packages will be available to those leaving the company,” the company said.
Just two weeks earlier, Tata Steel, as part of its 2008-09 financial statement, had said 2,000 jobs were at risk, that included 500 white collar job losses through Corus’ Long Products division, the majority of which could be at Scunthorpe.
Reacting to today’s announcement, John Wilson, senior officer of the GMB labour union, said: "With this further announcement, there is an even greater need for urgency from the government to secure this bedrock manufacturing industry and reassure the local community.”
Scunthorpe Telegraph, a regional newspaper, quoting Scunthorpe Corus steelworks’ director Sean Lyons said, "We have been working hard with the trade unions to come up with a cost-saving solution that would have avoided job reductions and a proposal was put to Scunthorpe employees in May. Unfortunately, union representatives decided that they were unable to ballot their members on the cost saving proposal. We have had to take this urgent action to align our employment costs to current and forecast demand for our products. Wherever possible we will seek to utilise volunteers, but we must ensure that the capability of plants or departments is not jeopardised.”
With its main steel-making operations primarily in the UK and the Netherlands, Corus supplies steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging, mechanical engineering and other markets worldwide. tata acquired Corus in 2007, making the latter one of the top 10 steel producers in the world.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Corus to cut 2,045 more jobs in Europe
S Kalyana Ramanathan / London June 26, 2009
Corus Group, Europe’s second-largest steel maker and a subsidiary of Tata Steel, today announced 2,045 fresh job cuts, mostly in three of its plants in the United Kingdom. These will be over and above the 2,500 job cuts it had announced at the beginning of 2009.
A statement issued today by Corus said the consultation process within the company identifies 2,045 jobs as being at risk. Some 1,500 of these are in the company’s production facilities — around 800 at the engineering steels sites, mainly Rotherham and Stocksbridge; about 370 in Corus Tubes in the UK and the Netherlands; and about 375 at downstream rolling and finishing plants in Teesside and Scotland. The company is also opening consultations on 500 white-collar jobs throughout the Corus Long Products division, the majority at Scunthorpe.
The steel maker’s parent company Tata Steel, in its statement announcing its financial results for 2008-09, further said the potential for compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out, though efforts will be taken to make many of these job losses as voluntary as possible.
“Redundancy packages and outplacement support services will be available to those leaving the company. There will be full consultations with employees and their representatives throughout the process,” Tata Steel said.
Corus CEO Kirby Adams said: “We understand the difficulties these job losses are likely to cause our employees and their families. Any recovery in Europe appears to be some time off, so it is vital that we take this proportionate and responsible action now. We have to achieve long-term, sustainable competitiveness in a global and over-supplied steel market.”
During 2008-09, steel deliveries and liquid steel production for Corus fell by 14 per cent and 20 per cent to 19.69 million tonnes and 16.21 million tonnes respectively, reflecting a weak second half of the year. Turnover at Corus during the year, however, increased by 9 per cent to Rs 109,570 crore ($21,439 million) and, while EBITDA decreased by 2 per cent to Rs 8,906 crore ($1,751 million) in the financial year 2008-09 compared with the financial year 2007-08.
GMB, Corus Group’s primary labour union in the UK, in a statement issued in reaction to the fresh job losses, said that this was a devastating news and the union will need to talk to Corus as soon as possible.
The fresh job cuts, despite these initiatives were, as a result of the “continued to experience deteriorating market conditions” in some of the group’s European operations. including decline in demand in Europe and America.
These fresh job cuts also comes at a time when the company’s Teesside plant is the verge of being mothballed due to the loss of a major long term contract involving a consortium of buyers from Europe and Asia. The closure or even temporary shut down of this plant would result in nearly 2000 people losing their jobs.
Corus Group, Europe’s second-largest steel maker and a subsidiary of Tata Steel, today announced 2,045 fresh job cuts, mostly in three of its plants in the United Kingdom. These will be over and above the 2,500 job cuts it had announced at the beginning of 2009.
A statement issued today by Corus said the consultation process within the company identifies 2,045 jobs as being at risk. Some 1,500 of these are in the company’s production facilities — around 800 at the engineering steels sites, mainly Rotherham and Stocksbridge; about 370 in Corus Tubes in the UK and the Netherlands; and about 375 at downstream rolling and finishing plants in Teesside and Scotland. The company is also opening consultations on 500 white-collar jobs throughout the Corus Long Products division, the majority at Scunthorpe.
The steel maker’s parent company Tata Steel, in its statement announcing its financial results for 2008-09, further said the potential for compulsory redundancies cannot be ruled out, though efforts will be taken to make many of these job losses as voluntary as possible.
“Redundancy packages and outplacement support services will be available to those leaving the company. There will be full consultations with employees and their representatives throughout the process,” Tata Steel said.
Corus CEO Kirby Adams said: “We understand the difficulties these job losses are likely to cause our employees and their families. Any recovery in Europe appears to be some time off, so it is vital that we take this proportionate and responsible action now. We have to achieve long-term, sustainable competitiveness in a global and over-supplied steel market.”
During 2008-09, steel deliveries and liquid steel production for Corus fell by 14 per cent and 20 per cent to 19.69 million tonnes and 16.21 million tonnes respectively, reflecting a weak second half of the year. Turnover at Corus during the year, however, increased by 9 per cent to Rs 109,570 crore ($21,439 million) and, while EBITDA decreased by 2 per cent to Rs 8,906 crore ($1,751 million) in the financial year 2008-09 compared with the financial year 2007-08.
GMB, Corus Group’s primary labour union in the UK, in a statement issued in reaction to the fresh job losses, said that this was a devastating news and the union will need to talk to Corus as soon as possible.
The fresh job cuts, despite these initiatives were, as a result of the “continued to experience deteriorating market conditions” in some of the group’s European operations. including decline in demand in Europe and America.
These fresh job cuts also comes at a time when the company’s Teesside plant is the verge of being mothballed due to the loss of a major long term contract involving a consortium of buyers from Europe and Asia. The closure or even temporary shut down of this plant would result in nearly 2000 people losing their jobs.
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