Tata redundancies '˜may not be over'

The steel producer announced it was cutting positions at its strip products business, based in Port Talbot.

It comes after the Indian-owned firm announced 1,200 redundancies at its long products division - centred on Scunthorpe - and 720 from speciality products, based in Rotherham.

In total, the company has announced almost 3,000 redundancies, affecting all three major divisions, since July.

Once complete, the UK headcount will be down from 17,000 to 14,000.

A Tata spokesman said despite the restructuring further redundancies could not be ruled out.

He added: “There is nothing else planned at this time, but we just don’t know what is around the corner. We will continue to press Government for the changes that are required to create a sustainable steel industry in this country.”

After a concerted campaign, the Government has helped introduce an energy compensation package to ease the cost of green taxes which is worth tens of millions of pounds a year to Tata.

The UK industry is also facing a flood of cheap imports, particularly from China, and a strong pound hitting exports. Nationally, SSI on Teesside has shed 2,200 jobs and Caparo in the Midlands a further 500.

In South Yorkshire, some 550 jobs are set to go after Tata announced it was hugely reducing production of ‘black bar’ at Thrybergh, used in low-tech applications such as nuts and bolts.