Further jobs blow for steel town

Difficult trading conditions are being blamed for the cuts

The steelmaker Corus is expected to announce that it is cutting 300 jobs at its Trostre tinplate factory in Llanelli.

Workers and unions have been called to a meeting with management later on Friday morning.

It comes a week after boatmaker Avon Inflatables announced it was closing its factory in the town with the loss of 57 posts.

In nearby Gorseinon, a further 185 jobs are being cut by tape maker 3M.

Fears for the future of the Trostre tinplate plant first surfaced last year, when Corus announced it was trimming the workforce by nearly 100, and reducing manufacturing capacity.

Corus was bought out by the Indian company Tata Steel in January 2007, raising further concerns on whether UK operations could compete with Tata sites in Asia.

Quite frankly, the workforce there has worked extremely hard to improve the efficiency, so they really are very competitive now Nia Griffith MP, Llanelli

Some 700 people currently work at the Trostre site making a wide range of tinplate products for the food and packaging industries.

The plant is now more than 50 years old, but has received a steady stream of investment, including a new £10m production line in 2003, and a further £700,000 on machinery just two years ago.

Future

However Llanelli AM Helen Mary Jones said whatever the announcement from Corus the focus must be on securing the plant's future.

"I hope that when the company has made its overall decisions about where it has to change production, where it needs to focus, that it will really look at the quality of workforce that it's got in its Llanelli plant and see how it can retain those skills," said the Plaid Cymru AM.

"If there are job losses announced we need to think about what we then do to secure the long term future of the plant, and I'm hoping that I can bring the minister for economic development down to Llanelli next week to talk to the company about this, to see what, if anything, can be done to support them."

The Labour MP for the town, Nia Griffith, said the Trostre plant has a vital role for Llanelli.

Flagship

"I think everybody in Llanelli either knows somebody or is related to someone working there," she said.

"There's been huge investment there. It's the only one of the Corus plants that can produce every single one of the range of products they do.

"Quite frankly, the workforce there has worked extremely hard to improve the efficiency, so they really are very competitive now.

Ms Griffith said she understood that today's announcement would impact on other Corus factories across Europe, which could aid Trostre's future.

"I understand that there will be a closure announced for the Corus Bergen factory," she told BBC Radio Wales.

"Now that actually makes Llanelli's position more secure because that would be taking capacity out of the market and obviously leaving their flagship factory here at Trostre with a better chance of survival."