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Liberty Steel plans to cut manufacturing and mothball sites in move that threatens 440 jobs
Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel will scrap manufacturing and mothball sites in a shakeup that threatens 440 jobs.
The group blamed rising energy prices for making it ‘unviable’ to make certain grades of steel and will now import it from abroad.
It is the latest crisis in an industry that has struggled for years with high energy costs and cheap imports.
Cutbacks: Liberty Steel says rising energy prices have made it ‘unviable’ to make certain grades of steel and will now import them from abroad
Scunthorpe-based British Steel is seeking a £300 million government bailout.
Liberty, Britain’s third largest steel producer, employs around 2,350 people at 11 sites, including Newport, Rotherham and West Bromwich. It almost went bankrupt after the collapse of Greensill Capital in 2021.
Greensill was the largest lender to Liberty’s parent company GFG, which is led by Gupta.
GFG is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office for suspected fraud and money laundering.
Unions claimed that Liberty had not consulted them. Alun Davies, of the Community union, described the news as a ‘body blow’, while the Unite union said it would fight ‘tooth and nail’ for any job.