Liberty House creates 300 extra steel jobs

International industrials group Liberty House says it will create an extra 300 steel jobs in South Yorkshire.

The new jobs come on top of the 1,700 it said it would create in February earlier this year.

The move came as the company completed the purchase of Tata Steel's speciality steels division for £100m.

It said it was making multi-million-pound investments to secure the future of five sites across the North of England and West Midlands.

The acquisition will make Liberty one of the largest steel and engineering employers in the UK, with more than 4,500 workers.

The company said these would protect the jobs of 1,700 existing staff at three major sites at Rotherham, Stocksbridge and Brinsworth in South Yorkshire, smaller sites in Bolton, Lancashire and Wednesbury in the West Midlands and two distribution centres in China.

Speciality steels produces a range of high-value steels used in the manufacture of vehicles, aircraft, industrial machinery and equipment for the oil and gas industry.

Liberty said it would invest up to £20m in new plant and equipment in the first year alone to boost competitiveness and secure international market leadership for the business, which is being relaunched as Liberty Speciality Steels.

The business will increase output substantially at the electric arc furnaces, casting shop and bar mill in Rotherham, with bigger plans across the wider speciality business in the years ahead.