Steelmaker Corus to cut 2,000 British jobs as demand nosedives

Europe’s second largest steelmaker Corus said yesterday it was planning to cut a further 1,922 jobs in Britain’s industrial heartlands, alongside axing another 123 staff in the Netherlands.

Of the jobs to be cut in Britain, some 800 will go from Corus’ engineering steel sites in the northern English towns of Rotherham and Stocksbridge, while in the Netherlands, the jobs will go from the Corus Tubes division.

Office workers will not escape the cull, with some 500 white-collar jobs under threat in Scunthorpe. Unemployment in Britain is already running at its highest rate in more than a decade.

Corus, part of India’s Tata Steel, said the cuts were necessary to cope with the decline in steel demand.