Tata Steel to trim 1,000 jobs in Netherlands

Tata Steel today said it will cut about 1,000 jobs over the next four years at Ijmuiden plant in the Netherlands as part of cost-cutting measures.

However, the company also said it would put in 800 million euro investment in the facility to increase liquid steel making capacity by 0.5 million tonne to 7.7 million tonne and enhance product quality over the next five years.

"...The total number of full-time jobs at the plant will be reduced by about 1,000 in the next four years," Tata Steel said in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The trimming of workforce is a part of its "Improvement Programme", a five-year plan designed to sustain the potential of the plant, aimed to further enhancing product quality, improving plant reliability and reducing costs.

"The programme is balanced in its structure so as to achieve both cost reductions and growth through investment. As a consequence, Ijmuiden's annual effective capacity will raise by 2015-16 from 7.2 million tonne to 7.7 million tonne," it said.

The programme, it said, will also better enable the plant to meet the demands of current complex market situation.

"Today's improvement programme aims at significantly strengthening Ijumideen's position in the steel industry, helping it realise its potential as world-class steel plant," Tata Steel Europe MD & CEO Karl-Ulrich Kohler said.