| Corus to cut more jobs | |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata December 1, 2008, 20:24 IST | |
Following the reorganization of its distribution business, Tata Steel’s Corus has extended the initiative to its tubes business, putting 146 jobs at risk.
A company statement said that it had decided to reduce employment levels at each of Corus Tubes’ principal establishments in the UK and the Netherlands. A total of 146 jobs would be at risk, 56 at Corby, 49 at Hartlepool and 41 in the Netherlands. Corus Tubes employs 2,200 people at its locations throughout the UK and Netherlands.
Nick Clarke, Acting Managing Director of Corus Tubes, commented: “Its is regrettable that we need to propose redundancies. However, we need to make these changes in order to strengthen our business and address the challenging market conditions we face.”
He added, “Our priority is to keep all our employees up to date with the changes and help them and their families, through this difficult time.”
Corus Tubes is a business unit of Corus and manufactures steel tubes for applications such as construction, automotive, mechanical engineering and building services.
On November 28, the business unit started the process of consultation with its employees and their trade union representatives. The company statement said that Corus Tubes was committed to find ways to limit the redundancies and reduce their potential consequences.
Last month, Corus decided to cut 400 jobs in its distribution business in the wake of the global economic meltdown. The job cuts in the distribution unit were for the UK and Ireland operations, where the company employs 2,400 people across 36 sites.
Since the acquisition by Tata Steel in January 2007, the job cuts in the distribution business was the first layoff announced by the company.
Industry observers said that the global meltdown had led to most of the companies operating in the international markets to announce job cuts.
The slowdown had taken a toll on the demand for steel, resulting in a price crash. For instance, hot rolled coil prices have come down from $1,250 a ton in July to $600-$650 currently.
In a bid to realign production with demand, Corus had announced a 30 per cent production cut in the fourth quarter, after a 20 per cent cut in the third quarter.
Corus is Europe’s second largest steel producer with a crude steel production of 20 million tons and its acquisition by Tata Steel catapulted the domestic steel major to the world’s sixth largest.
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