British Steel plans to resume commercial production at its special steel profiles plant in Skinningrove, North Yorkshire, on July 4 after a three-week hiatus due to challenging trading conditions related to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Work at the plant was suspended for the second time in three months on June 13, with most of the factory’s 300 employees placed on furlough, until such time that the slump in orders from industries such as rail and construction improved.
While a skeletal workforce remained at the Skinningrove site for care and maintenance, British Steel noted that its Scunthorpe steelworks and Teesside Beam Mill operations at Lackenby had not been affected by the original announcement.
The Skinningrove special steel profiles site forms a small part of British Steel’s wider operations, which has an annual steelmaking capacity of up to 4.5mn mt, and was acquired by Chinese conglomerate Jingye Group in March 2020.