Tata Steel Ltd. (IW 1000/196) on October 20 said it would cut around 1,200 jobs at two plants in Britain, blaming the action in part on cheap imports from China.
“This comes in response to a shift in market conditions caused by a flood of cheap imports, particularly from China, a strong pound and high electricity costs,” Tata said in a statement coinciding with the start of a four-day visit to Britain by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“This industry has a crucial role to play in rebalancing the UK economy, but we need a fairer system to encourage growth. The European Commission needs to do much more to deal with unfairly traded imports — inaction threatens the future of the entire European steel industry,” warned the chief executive of Tata Steel UK.