Liberty Steel says it plans to cut 355 UK jobs in response to "challenging market conditions".

The company said it would consult with unions over a proposal to axe around 280 jobs at a plant in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire and 70 in Newport, south Wales.

Liberty said that following a review it had decided to reduce the workforce at certain locations "in order to make them sustainable for the long term".

The firm, led by tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, acquired its plant in Stocksbridge as part of a £100m deal with Tata Steel in 2017, after the Indian conglomerate put its UK business up for sale.

The Newport plant was a previously mothballed site bought by Liberty in 2013, where it resumed production in 2015.


They were among a string of acquisitions made by Liberty at a time when the UK steel industry was facing a crisis that saw thousands of jobs cut - in moves blamed on pressure from cheap Chinese imports.

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Announcing the planned job cuts, chief executive Cornelius Louwrens said: "Liberty has taken enormous strides in improving the performance of the steel mills it has acquired over the last six years.

"We've re-started mothballed plants and demonstrated a commitment to invest in the UK.

"Unfortunately, the steel industry in the UK is facing challenging conditions and we have made the difficult decision that there is a need to reduce the workforce at a handful of locations, in order to make them sustainable for the long-term.

"It has always been our intention, and always will be, to avoid compulsory redundancies."

Ross Murdoch, national officer of the GMB union, said: "Once again we have more bad news for the UK steel industry.

"A country that doesn't produce its own steel for key infrastructure projects and shipbuilding is a country that's destined to fail.

"Our steelworkers deserve better than this.

"The government urgently needs to intervene and ensure steel companies in the UK receive the backing they have long called for on energy costs and business rates."