Corus plans to recruit 154 new workers for its South Yorkshire manufacturing operations and to resume apprentice and graduate recruitment. This would bring the number of new workers hired by the company to more than 300 since March.
Corus Specialty Steels is looking for 14 apprentices and seven graduates—the first time the business has recruited trainees since the economic downturn. It is also looking for 133 new workers to support steel manufacturing and steel rolling operations in South Yorkshire (90 in Stocksbridge and 43 in Rotherham).
“Just over a year ago, I was explaining to people why the business was having to undergo a painful restructuring, which led to the loss of more than 1000 jobs. At the lowest point, our orders had shrunk to about a quarter of where they were,” explained Peter Hogg, Specialty Steels General Manager.
“Since then we have been refocusing the business on supplying specialist steel products to the world’s most demanding markets, like aerospace and energy exploration and generation. Now we are in a position where we are recovering so we can strengthen the business.
“Many of our products have extremely high technical and chemical specifications, and we need to train new people now to ensure we don’t have a skills shortage in the future,” Hogg said. “The recruitment of apprentices and graduates is an investment in the future of the business.”
The latest recruitment drive follows a similar recruitment campaign in March, which led to the business hiring 160 new workers.
“When this latest recruitment drive has been completed, we will be employing almost 2000 people at our Rotherham and Stocksbridge manufacturing plants. On top of that, we also have about 250 employees at our technology centre in Rotherham,” Hogg added.
“The 133 new workers who will support our operations 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.”
Corus is Europe's second largest steel producer. With main steelmaking operations primarily in the U.K. and the Netherlands, the company supplies steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging, mechanical engineering, and other markets worldwide. Corus is a subsidiary of Tata Steel, one of the world’s top 10 steel producers. The combined enterprise has an aggregate crude steel capacity of more than 28 million tonnes and approximately 80,000 employees across four continents.