Steel firm SSI United Kingdom to be put into liquidation -union

Around 1,700 jobs are being axed after SSI announced earlier this week that it would mothball iron and steelmaking at the site.

Tom Blenkinsop, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, urged the government to save as many jobs as possible and expressed disappointment that it was not willing to bailout SSI United Kingdom but had recently lent £45m to competitor Evraz, a steel and mining company owned by Alexander Abramov.

It includes funding for workers to retrain at local further education colleges and to help them start their own businesses.

Unions described Friday’s announcement as “devastating“, with Community union general secretary Roy Rickhuss claiming SSI had shown the workforce “a lack of respect”.

“The recent announcement of a £80 million support package is welcomed…”

The new offer comes after Conservative MP James Wharton said the government had no intention of bailing out the Redcar steel plant or bringing it into public ownership.

The full details of the deal are still being discussed, with both the Business Secretary and Business Minister Anna Soubry attending talks with a local taskforce today.

Javid’s department said SSI made a “last-minute and unrealistic” request for an “open-ended” government funding commitment to keep Europe’s second-biggest blast furnace burning on the banks of the river Tees.

The Thai parent company of SSI United Kingdom has also posted on its website that it has entered “rehabilitation” under Thai law.

Around 1,700 jobs are now set to be lost, with thousands more in the supply chain. “The company has never made a profit and the board’s proposal would do nothing to address the huge debts outstanding to local suppliers and other parties”. But we need to push our union leaders to call the kind of fight that can do it. And if they won’t call it, then workers should take action without them.

In a statement released on Monday SSI blamed the poor steel trading conditions across the globe and the severe deterioration in steel prices for the situation the plant finds itself in.

And Mr Wharton felt Teesside still had a bright future, with jobs created in other industries.

“The Government must step in because steelworkers are facing the end of their industry and a bleak future”.

Gareth Stace, director of trade body UK Steel, said Redcar “remains a viable and efficient plant” and a government-led summit taking place in two weeks would be “a make-or-break event for the entire industry”.