Current owner Liberty Steel has brought optimism back to the business – until financial woes and the pandemic create a new crisis.
It is part of the Specialty Steels division which employs 762 people in Stocksbridge – supplying the aerospace, oil and gas and general engineering markets – and 865 in Rotherham.
The first sign of real problems came in February when Liberty revealed it had to ‘deal with the impact’ on jobs at Stockbridge due to the drop in aircraft sales during the pandemic.
In the UK, the weakness in the aerospace market induced by Covid has reduced demand for some products by 60 percent. Most Stocksbridge workers have been on leave since March 12 to save money, but in December the company confirmed it was investing £ 60million to modernize equipment and double output at its factory special steels in Rotherham after receiving orders for nearly 10,000 tonnes of reinforcement. bar for schools, hospitals, homes, energy installations and transport links.
The company is betting heavily on using some of the millions of tonnes of scrap steel exported by the UK to make more steel needed in that country, which is currently imported.
Steel making dates back 179 years at Stocksbridge. During this period, he withstood many crises.
A timeline of steelmaking at Stocksbridge
1842 – Samuel Fox established a steel mill in a disused cotton mill in Stocksbridge, then a small settlement, and continued to build much of the infrastructure
1851 – The company develops the famous paragon umbrella frame
1860 – Stocksbridge factory includes kilns and rolling mills
1877 – A railway line was built to connect the steelworks to the wider region
1918 – Samuel Fox & Co joins forces with several companies to form the United Steel Company
1967 – The works are nationalized in the British Steel Corporation and become “ Stocksbridge Engineering Steels ”
1999 – Taken over by Corus
2006 – Acquired by the Indian company Tata
2009 – Great wave of layoffs
2017 – Tata sells all UK steel business to Liberty for £ 100million
2018 – Liberty invests and announces its intention to reopen ovens put on standby
2020 – 283 jobs in South Yorkshire cut – including 250 in Stocksbridge – cut due to ‘political uncertainty and Brexit’
2020 – Plans announced to invest £ 60million and double production at Rotherham
2021 (February) – reveals he has been forced to ‘manage the impact’ on jobs due to plummeting aircraft sales during the pandemic
2021 (March) – Lender Greensill collapses in administration, raising fears for all of Liberty Steel’s 5,000 companies in the UK, which include 12 steel plants, including Rotherham, Stocksbridge, Newport and Hartlepool .
2021 (May) Liberty announces its intention to sell the Stocksbridge business as it is no longer essential.
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Source: www.thestar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-05-24 14:03:16