Liberty Steel tells Kallanish that its decision to reduce jobs at its Dalzell plant in Motherwell, Scotland is due to a need to right-size the workforce for current market conditions. The company remians optimistic for the future of the plant, it says.

The company says that its move to reduce numbers employed by 18 at the plate plant is caused by uncertainty among customers. This itself has been caused by external factors beyond Liberty’s control and is undermining the plant’s ability to increase sales as planned.

The reduction is being made “… in order to sustain the business going forward and protect what we’ve achieved for the benefit of the remaining 145 employees,” the company says in a statement.

“We have discussed this in-depth with the workforce and their trade union representatives and are making selections on an open and fair basis, using voluntary redundancy or non-renewal of temporary contracts, where possible. Despite this measure, we are optimistic about the underlying health of the plant and we’re confident that, when current market uncertainties are lifted, we will be able to secure substantial new orders and start recruiting again,” Liberty adds.

The Dalzell plant specialises in producing heavy steel plate and was acquired by Liberty from Tata Steel UK in 2017. It supplies a range of plate to varying specifications including structural steels, pressure vessel steels, offshore steels and shipbuilding steels.