Mothballed Scots steel plant to restart production

Steel production is set to resume next month at one of two Lanarkshire plants that were mothballed last year.

Tata Steel closed its Dalzell mill in Motherwell and the Clydebridge plant in Cambuslang with the loss of 270 jobs.

Both were later bought by international metals firm Liberty House which intends to restart production at the Motherwell site in September.

About 60 staff are currently working there, with 40 more recruits expected - many of them former Tata Steel staff.

Liberty Steel said that the Dalzell plate-rolling mill had taken delivery of about 1,500 tonnes of slab steel rom the British Steel plant at Scunthorpe.

'Significant milestone'

This is in preparation for the restart of steel plate production next month.

Jon Bolton, chief executive of Liberty Steel UK plate division, said: "This is a significant milestone for the plates business in Scotland, but also positive news for the UK steel sector as steel once again is manufactured in British Steel's Scunthorpe site to be rolled in Scotland.

"It is pleasing to watch the plant gradually coming back to life as more people arrive on site and particularly pleasing to welcome young apprentices to the team."

Liberty said that about 60 staff were involved in the preparations to reopen Dalzell, with a further 40 expected to join the workforce before production starts.

The firm said that about 70% of the initial wave of recruits were former employees returning to their old jobs.

It has also awarded about 20 new supply contracts, for business and engineering services, to firms in the Motherwell area.

Liberty House Group executive chairman, Sanjeev Gupta, said this was the beginning of the fulfilment of a promise to the local community.

"We said we would revive this historic steelworks and that is exactly what we are doing," he said.