Task Force To Seek Out Buyer for Closing Scottish Mills
10/29/2015 - A task force organized to address the closure of two Tata Steel Europe plants in Scotland has agreed to seek a buyer for the facilities, reports the BBC.
Tata last week said it was shuttering its Dalzell plate rolling mill and the associated Clydebridge heat treatment plant, laying off about 270 people in the process. Additionally, Tata said it was closing the plate mill at its Scunthorpe works in England and mothballing one of two coke ovens there.
All told, the company is shedding roughly 1,200 positions.
"Today's first meeting of the task force was a chance for all members to agree that our primary focus is to secure an alternative operator for the … plants and retain as many jobs as possible,” Fergus Ewing, Scotland’s minister for business, energy and tourism, told the BBC.
The meeting included representatives from trade unions, Tats Steel, and others, the BBC said.
"The Scottish government has been looking urgently at what more we can do to help, on issues like business rates, energy efficiency and generation, how to cut operating costs at the plants and considering the public procurement of steel in our forward infrastructure investment program,” Ewing told the BBC.
All told, the company is shedding roughly 1,200 positions.
"Today's first meeting of the task force was a chance for all members to agree that our primary focus is to secure an alternative operator for the … plants and retain as many jobs as possible,” Fergus Ewing, Scotland’s minister for business, energy and tourism, told the BBC.
The meeting included representatives from trade unions, Tats Steel, and others, the BBC said.
"The Scottish government has been looking urgently at what more we can do to help, on issues like business rates, energy efficiency and generation, how to cut operating costs at the plants and considering the public procurement of steel in our forward infrastructure investment program,” Ewing told the BBC.
