Tata Steel will cut 1,050 jobs from its plants in the UK, mostly in south Wales.
The Indian company said that the majority of job losses will come at the Port Talbot plant (623), with further cuts made to the workforce at Llanwern (125), Trostre (15), as well as Hartlepool and Northamptonshire.
The cuts have been blamed on cheap Chinese steel imports flooding the European market at below market rates.
Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel’s European operations, said:
“We need the European Commission to accelerate its response to unfairly traded imports and increase the robustness of its actions. Not doing so threatens the future of the entire European steel industry.”
Stuart Wilkie, Director of Strip Products UK, commented:
“We have to accelerate the changes we announced last August, by lowering our costs at the same time as focusing on manufacturing higher-value products. These are urgent steps needed to give this business a chance of survival.”
Tata has also called on the UK government to lower businesses rates and support energy efficiency policies.
Labour MP for Aberavon Stephen Kinnock has blamed the government for “sitting on its hands” and allowing the crisis in UK steel manufacturing to escalate and job losses to mount up in the sector.
