Corus, Europe’s second-largest steel group, revealed yesterday that it would cut a further 2,045 jobs, mostly in Britain, as it struggles to cope with falling demand for steel.

In the latest blow to the British steel industry, the group said that 12 sites in the UK would be affected, with heavy job losses for engineering and office staff in Scunthorpe, Stocksbridge and Rotherham and on Teesside.

Corus has already shed about 2,500 jobs this year after mothballing a mill in South Wales and restructuring several parts of its business, to counter a 50 per cent fall in demand for steel from its peak because of the global recession. Kirby Adams, chief executive, said it was vital to act now, given that any recovery in Europe appeared to be “some time off”.

News of the job cuts came as Tata Steel, the Indian parent of Corus, reported a 60 per cent fall in full-year profits to $973 million (£597 million), which it attributed to falling prices and demand, with a particularly sluggish performance in Europe. Tata added that the recession looked deeper than it had thought six months ago.

The bleak assessment is in stark contrast to the comments made this week by Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of ArcelorMittal, that the world’s largest steelmaker was starting to see some “green shoots” in the global steel industry.

Unions reacted angrily to the latest bout of redundancies. Michael Leahy, general secretary of the Community union, the majority union representing Corus employees, described the cuts as “devastating” and said that the fight was now on for the future of British steelmaking. Mr Leahy said: “This is bad news on top of bad news. This brings the Corus job cuts for the year to around 4,500 and that’s without the threat to thousands of workers on Teesside and potentially more job cuts in the pipeline for Corus Strip UK.

“Corus need to decide if they really are trying to be fit for the future or just fit for the scrapheap. We have real concerns for the integrity of the British steel industry — we fear its further erosion could fundamentally undermine UK manufacturing. The Government must also take action before it’s too late.”

John Rowse, Unite’s national officer, said: “The situation for Corus and British manufacturing is too serious to stand idly by. Unless there is urgent support from the Government, British manufacturing will come out of recession hamstrung and unable to compete in the world economy.”

Pat McFadden, the Business Minister, said that the Government was working with Corus to secure the future for as many workers as possible and that it had offered the company up to £5 million of training support to secure jobs across Corus sites.

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