New Corus jobs as steel demand improves

STEEL giant Corus is creating 50 new posts in Rotherham—a year after hundreds of jobs were slashed.

Corus has confirmed that 50 people would be recruited in Rotherham and 110 in Stocksbridge after it saw improvements in trading conditions.

The announcement comes less than a year after a slump in demand forced the company to announce 2,000 job cuts at its sites across the UK.

The successful new applicants will join multi-skilled teams to support the steel manufacturing and steel rolling operations.

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Corus is also exploring the possibility of transferring staff to the plants from its recently-mothballed Redcar site.

The business, owned by Indian-based multi-national Tata, has also strengthened its sales expertise in the aerospace and energy sectors with additional account managers for its South Yorkshire-based Speciality Steels business.

Peter Hogg, from Corus, said: “It is important that we do what we can to retain as many skilled workers as possible.”

Corus employs more than 1,500 people at the Stocksbridge and Rotherham plants and its Rotherham technology centre.

The new staff will be employed in steel manufacturing and steel-rolling operations.

Mr Hogg described 2009 as “the toughest year in the European steel industry for over 60 years.”

He said: “We had to make major changes to our business to weather that storm.

“We refocused the South Yorkshire business in supplying our quality steel to customers in high-technology applications in markets such as aerospace, automotive and energy exploration and generation.

“There are signs that more positive trading conditions are emerging in some of the sectors we supply to and we are now strengthening the business to be in the best position to compete for new orders.

"The 160 new workers will be recruited on an agency basis initially, but will be trained progressively into skilled steelworkers. If business conditions continue to improve I hope we'll be able to employ them directly at some point in the future.

“We are also working closely with our sister plant in Teesside, which was recently mothballed in order to provide opportunities to transfer for the skilled steelworkers at risk there.

“It is important that we do what we can to retain as many skilled workers as possible.”

Corus Speciality Steels supplies high technology steel to customers in the aerospace, automotive, oil and gas, power generation and renewable energy sectors.

The business supplies steel used in some of the world’s most demanding applications.

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