Redcar steelworks: ‘British steel industry is in crisis’

SSI United Kingdom, which owns the Redcar steelworks, has gone into liquidation – leaving more than 1,700 workers facing unemployment.

Thai manufacturer SSI bought the plant from Tata Steel in 2011 as part of a major investment in the UK.

SSI United Kingdom and its parent, Thailand’s biggest steelmaker Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), were not immediately available to comment.

Dr John Sentamu has reacted to the decision of SSI on Monday to axe 1,700 jobs at the site amid falling global steel prices, causing a huge blow to the Teesside economy.

Sajid Javid said: “The package we are announcing today will provide important support to workers and the local economy”.

“The impact of our European Union membership stretches far and wide and with Labour determined to pretend that it’s beneficial for us to be members means that UKIP will continue to be the real opposition in the North of England”.

“The government can not accept the request”, it said.

The Government is also now considering a landmark devolution proposal from Tees Valley which would devolve powers from Whitehall into the hands of local people and businesses. Ministers had “no confidence” that this was a realistic proposal for the public purse to support and it would have been in breach of strict state aid rules, which prohibit a rescue.

“I will try to do all I can as an advocate for workers and their families – and for the future of their community – at this hard time”.

“We have set out an infrastructure plan for the country to see how much steel has been demanded”.

It will also start mapping out a path to a sustainable future for the industry.

It comes just days after the Tories refused a plea from SSI to step in and protect the Redcar plant from closure, instead choosing to fund retraining for sacked workers. Once those ovens go cold then the hopes of finding another buyer will fade and the light on a proud tradition of steelmaking will be snuffed out. Workers’ union GMB responded with discontent and called on the government to do something to prevent hurting thousands of families.

Shadow business secretary Angela Eagle said: “The government must explain why, when the industry has been in trouble for so long, they have allowed the situation to disintegrate into catastrophe”.

Gareth Stace, director of UK Steel, said the whole steel sector was “in crisis” and needed urgent government support.

Producing steel profitably in Britain is hard due to cheap imports and a strong currency, plus relatively high energy costs and “green” taxes imposed on heavy industry that are a few of the highest in the world.

The British government says bailing out a steel plant in Redcar after bosses said it would shut down is unrealistic.