Outokumpu’s stainless steel subsidiary AvestaPolarit has announced its intention to close its Panteg plant in Wales, UK, at the end of March 2004. The closure plan has been made against a background of consistent poor financial performance over many years, which has had a considerable negative impact on the development of the Coil Products Sheffield business unit to which Panteg belongs. The proposed closure will result in the redundancy of all 116 direct employees at Panteg and approximately 20 job losses at the company’s Shepcote Lane, Sheffield site. These changes are the subject of consultation, which will immediately commence with the Panteg and Sheffield workforce and the appropriate trade unions. The Panteg cold rolling facilities have specialised mainly on ferritic stainless steels. Its annual delivery volumes have amounted to some 30,000 tonnes, which represents 2% of AvestaPolarit’s total annual output.
of coil products. The coil sales organisation will seek to put in place alternate supply routes for ferritics to its main stock and process customers in order to have business continue as usual.
