Midland steel company to be mothballed in energy crisis

A STEEL manufacturing business in West Bromwich is to be mothballed by its parent company under plans which could affect up to 440 jobs locally and across the country.

Liberty Steel is implementing the next phase of a restructuring programme because the business has been hit by high energy costs and imports from countries without the same environmental standards.

Liberty, part of the GFG Alliance, says it will offer an alternative to redundancy through a programme which aims to retain, redeploy and reskill affected workers.

Workers will be offered a level of guaranteed salary and outplacement opportunities, with the intention of being redeployed within Liberty Steel UK on previous employment terms when market conditions allow.

The company says the measures will forge a “viable way forward” for the business and help safeguard jobs in its wider workforce of 1,900 permanent employees, and up to 5,000 including contractors.

Liberty said in a statement: “Despite the injection of £200 million of shareholder capital over the last two years, the production of some commodity grade products at Rotherham and downstream mills has become unviable in the short term due to high energy costs and imports from countries without the same environmental standards.

“These actions, together with the idling of Liberty Performance Steels in West Bromwich and the reconfiguration of Liberty Steel Newport into a storage, distribution and trading hub, may potentially impact up to 440 roles across the business.”

Alun Davies, national officer of steelworkers union Community, said: “This announcement is a body blow to Liberty Steel’s loyal UK workforce, who couldn’t have done more to get the company through an exceptionally challenging period.

“Consultation must be meaningful and the unions will be scrutinising the detail of plans to idle West Bromwich and Newport, including Liberty’s commitment to restart the plants when conditions allow.

“The Government must play its part, stop the dithering and act to deliver the competitive energy prices our industry so desperately needs.”