Liberty Steel UK to idle sites, cut jobs

Liberty Steel UK is idling three of its sites and cutting jobs, sources told Argus today.

The idled sites will be; Liberty Steel Newport, a hot-rolled coil mill in Wales; Liberty Performance Steels, a narrow strip business in the Midlands; and Liberty Steel Tredegar, also in Wales, which produces tubes and cold-formed sections.

Jobs are also at risk at the Rotherham bar site, where the company's electric arc furnace is situated. A total of 444 jobs are at risk, market and union sources said.

All of the sites have been producing intermittently owing to a lack of cash since the collapse of Liberty's main financier Greensill. Staff are being briefed on the measures today.

The measures are being taken because of high energy costs, weak markets and a lack of funding.

In the UK hot-rolled coil market, Liberty's Newport mill has largely been inactive for some time. When it has quoted for customers, the prices have been too high relative its competitors.

Liberty announced in November that it had reached an agreement in principle for a debt restructuring with the parties responsible for the main creditors of Greensill Capital, Greensill Bank and Credit Suisse Asset Management.

Under the agreement, the parties adjourned their winding up petitions against Liberty entities.

Liberty has yet to respond to Argus' request for comment.

By Colin Richardson