Redcar owner loses £530m on steel plant liquidation

The Thai owner of the Redcar steelworks has said that it lost almost 29bn baht ($800m, £530m) from the liquidation of the Teesside plant.

Parent company Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) said it expected "zero recovery" from the Redcar operation.

The Teesside furnaces and coke ovens were closed with a loss of 2,200 jobs in October.

Its liquidation meant SSI recorded an overall third quarter loss of 33,122m baht (£600m).

Group Chief Executive Mr. Win Viriyaprapaikit, said: "At present, the company on a conservative basis expects zero recovery after the completion of the SSI UK liquidation."

Global demand

Redcar was founded in 1917, producing steel that was used to build iconic structures such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

SSI bought the plant from Tata Steel in 2011.

Mr Win said that SSI had been hit by a collapse in demand worldwide and in the last quarter alone sales from its upstream business, which included Redcar, fell 15%.

He said: "Global steel over-capacity and demand imbalance since late 2014 and the continuous decline in steel prices resulted in a huge operating loss for the group this year."