Liberty Steel wants to cut 162 jobs at Stocksbridge, but shows clear signs of recovery at Rotherham

As many as 162 workers at Liberty Steel's Stocksbridge plant have been told the agency could lay them off.

A further 45 jobs at the company's headquarters in West Bromwich, West Midlands, will be cut as part of a major restructuring. Both sites specialize in the manufacture of alloys for the aerospace and energy sectors.

However, an additional 161 jobs are likely to be created at Liberty Steel's Rotherham plant. As our sister publication BusinessLive reports, funding at Greensteel's Rotherham office is likely to create roughly the same number of jobs in South Yorkshire.

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It's all part of a plan to convert the Rotherham plant into a two-million-tonne-per-year recycling manufacturing facility. The agency said it would try to minimize redundancies by moving Stocksbridge staff into related roles in Rotherham, but Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said "it's hard to do anything but be nervous" until final plans are known.

She said: "My thoughts are with workers and their households at this extremely stressful time. I know that over the last ten years they have done their best to meet the changing priorities of global markets, ownership and government.

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“Now is not the time for Liberty to repay that loyalty by removing highly-skilled employees from a strategic business we want more than ever. I will do everything I can to ensure that Liberty is doing the right thing with its employees, both to minimize the impact of the change and to ensure that as many as possible remain employed."

The announcement comes after months of uncertainty for Liberty Steel. There were fears that the company would go into liquidation, but a liquidation petition was concealed after last month's investment.