Engineering news
Tata Steel is to cut 400 jobs at one of its plants under restructuring proposals to "improve the competitiveness" of its steelmaking business.
The company employs 7,000 people in Wales, with around 3,500 of those based at the Port Talbot site.
The proposed changes at Port Talbot in South Wales will enable the UK Strip Products business to compete in Europe's "lower market demand era", said Tata Steel. The company predicts that steel demand and prices will be under pressure for years.
Karl Koehler, Tata Steel's European chief executive, said: "We have invested more than £250 million over the last two years in state-of-the-art steelmaking technology in the Strip Products business. In addition, we are currently investing in our Hot Strip Mill in Port Talbot and we have upgraded our galvanising line in Llanwern, enabling us to increase production of high-value automotive steels.
"These investments have created a more efficient and more reliable platform from which we can meet the needs of our customers, with an improved range and quality of products and services.
"But steel demand and prices are likely to be under pressure for some years. Our business rates in the UK are much higher than other EU countries' and our UK energy costs will remain uncompetitive until new mitigation measures come into effect.
The job losses are the latest in a series of cuts made since the Indian conglomerate bought Anglo-Dutch steel giant Corus in 2007 for £6.2 billion. Last year the firm cut 500 jobs from three steel factories at Scunthorpe, Teesside and Workington. In 2012 the firm cut 900 jobs, 600 at the Port Talbot site in South Wales. In 2011 it axed 1,500 jobs from its Scunthorpe, Teesside plants and its Lackenby Beam Mill and Skinningrove Long Products' sites.
According to the government, voluntary redundancy packages and cross matching of people to other parts of the business will be offered.
Roy Rickhuss, chair of the trade unions steel committee, which is made up of Community, Unite and the GMB, said: "It is vital that this is not just an exercise to just reduce costs by cutting jobs but takes a considered and objective view as to the numbers required to run and maintain the plant to make steel safely and productively.
"This news also demonstrates that despite the Government's trumpeting of economic recovery, the steel sector remains under real pressure. This sector, vital for so much of British manufacturing, must be an area of real focus for the UK's industrial policy.