3,000 jobs at risk at Redcar steel plant as SSI halts production

[EC]

The future of 3,000 jobs hangs in the balance after the owner of a steel plant at Redcar on Teeside said it was going to halt production amid mounting financial losses.

SSI blamed a deteriorating steel market for the suspension of output at the 160-year-old site. It said it hoped to resume production eventually.

The Thai-owned company is struggling to pay outstanding debts, leading to speculation about how long it could keep going while employing 2,000 staff and 1,000 contractors. Any closure would be a heavy blow because levels of unemployment are among the highest in Britain.

“We are taking this pause in production in order to re-evaluate and assess the situation following the outcome of ongoing discussions with our various stakeholders, including government and suppliers,” said Cornelius Louwrens, SSI’s UK business director. “It is with great regret that we have had to make this announcement and we are deeply aware of the concern it will give to our employees and their families.”

SSI bought Redcar from Tata Steel, which had mothballed the plant. Last month, Tata announced plans to lay off up to 250 workers at Llanwern in Wales.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/sep/18/redcar-jobs-steel-plant-ssi-production-teesside

[DCPatriot]

It's painfully obvious that what the world needs in order to get a jump-start economically...is a WAR!

Funny thing...'Citizen' Barack Obama would probably try to take credit for any uptick.   

[EC]

My granddad used to work at that plant - crane driver. It's one of the last steel plants in Middlesboro, there used to be hundreds. 

[DCPatriot]

My granddad used to work at that plant - crane driver. It's one of the last steel plants in Middlesboro, there used to be hundreds. 

Same in my hometown back in Buffalo, NY.   Republic Steel.   Bethlehem Steel.  Gone, shuttered, or on life-support. 

[Fishrrman]

DCPatriot wrote above:
[[ It's painfully obvious that what the world needs in order to get a jump-start economically...is a WAR! ]]

If there was another "world" war -- a REAL war -- neither the United States or Britain would have the manufacturing capacity to produce the materiel required to win.

But even worse -- we couldn't raise an army strong enough to win. Who would volunteer to fight? And our existing military has been (and is continuing to be) "reshaped" into a politically-correct "show force", no longer a fighting force.

Our only hope at victory would be to use nuclear weapons.
And our stock of those is being depleted from age and from deliberate retirement of the remaining stock.

[DCPatriot]

DCPatriot wrote above:
[[ It's painfully obvious that what the world needs in order to get a jump-start economically...is a WAR! ]]

If there was another "world" war -- a REAL war -- neither the United States or Britain would have the manufacturing capacity to produce the materiel required to win.

But even worse -- we couldn't raise an army strong enough to win. Who would volunteer to fight? And our existing military has been (and is continuing to be) "reshaped" into a politically-correct "show force", no longer a fighting force.

Our only hope at victory would be to use nuclear weapons.
And our stock of those is being depleted from age and from deliberate retirement of the remaining stock.

The country came together dramatically after the Pearl Harbor attack.  They could do it again.  They would do it again.

An attack personalizes it for individual Americans...as it did after 9-11.

Bush was hated and almost cheated out of his victory, and just 8 months later, he rode the wave of unity to a 5 million vote victory over Kerry.