Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

1,300 steel jobs set to go

Alan Jones
Friday 21 July 2000 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The country's biggest steel producer was expected to announce a fresh wave of job losses today as it continued to be hit by the strength of the pound.

The country's biggest steel producer was expected to announce a fresh wave of job losses today as it continued to be hit by the strength of the pound.

Corus is set to axe around 1,300 jobs, mainly from plants in South Wales including Llanwern and Port Talbot.

Other Welsh factories at Ebbw Vale in the south and Shotton in the north could also face redundancies.

Corus, formed by last year's merger between British Steel and Dutch firm Hoogovens, has announced more than 2,500 job cuts in the past month, partly blaming the strength of sterling.

Around 1,200 redundancies were announced last Friday at Scunthorpe and Middlesbrough following similar cutbacks in South Yorkshire last month.

Union officials have been seeking information on redundancies since news of the expected cutback leaked out on Monday evening.

The Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union said workers' morale at the factories in Wales had been hit by the speculation.

"The speculation is almost unbearable for many of our members," said general secretary Sir Ken Jackson. "It has been a very difficult week and workers are very angry that they have been kept in the dark."

Llanwern produces flat steel products for the car industry and for goods including washing machines.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in