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Steel boss to quit after cuts

THE steel industry boss who announced the mothballing of a major Corus plant in Teesside is to leave the company in October, it has been reported.

American Kirby Adams joined Corus, the European division of Indian steelmaker Tata, just over a year ago when the company was reportedly losing £100m a month and facing a major slump in international steel markets.

It is now making a profit but the turnaround has come at the expense of thousands of jobs, including at Teesside. The decision to mothball the site was taken after a consortium walked away from a key contract to buy its slab steel.

Mr Adams, who will be replaced at the helm of Tata Steel Europe by chief operating officer Karl-Ulrich Kohler, is returning to Australia, where he worked before joining Corus. He will remain as an adviser to Tata Steel.

Dr Kohler joined Corus in February after a 30-year steel industry career at the companies that today comprise ThyssenKrupp Steel.

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Steel, said he believed the Corus business was “well placed” after Mr Adams delivered a major turnaround.

Europe’s second largest steel producer, created in 1999 through the merger of British Steel and a Dutch firm, employs around 20,000 people in the UK, including at major steelworks at Port Talbot and Scunthorpe.

In February, Corus began the mothballing of its Redcar cast products facility, costing 1,600 jobs and ending 170 years of mass steelmaking.

The company, which is reportedly still in talks with Thai steelmaker SSI about a possible deal for the facility, came under heavy fire from unions and local politicians for not doing more to help rescue the site.

MPs also criticised Mr Adams for not attending a select committee examining the closure plan at Teesside.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .