Corus to cut over 2000 more jobs

Teesside, UK - Corus is to axe 2,045 mainly UK jobs around 1,500 at its production facilities: about 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 cuts, which also include 500 white-collar jobs at Scunthorpe-based Corus Long Products said Corus, build on a company restructuring programme announced in January involving 3500 job losses from its total workforce of around 42,000.

The company linked the latest measures to the worldwide economic downturn and, in particular, the decline in steel demand in Europe and America. The sites, it said had had suffered a continuing drop in demand for their products over recent months, said Corus, adding that the latest cutbacks would will help align its production and manning levels to demand.

“Any recovery in Europe appears to be some time off, so it is vital that we take this proportionate and responsible action now,” said Corus CEO Kirby Adams. “We have to achieve long-term, sustainable competitiveness in a global and over-supplied steel market and are determined to do so by focusing on the quality of the products and services we offer our customers.”

Accordin to Unite national officer, John Rowse, trade union officials would be holding urgent discussions with the company on this latest announcement. He also called on the government to step in and help save jobs at Corus.

"Whilst the circumstances of this latest announcement is due to the impact of the global crisis, interim solutions have to be local to the UK. The situation for Corus and British manufacturing is too serious to stand idly by," said Rowse. " Our priority is to minimise redundancies but unless there is action from the government to support British manufacturing we will continue to see skilled jobs wither on the vine."