Covid-19 continues to have a major impact on people and businesses across the world and British Steel is working hard to overcome the challenges we and our customers face. We’re committed to safeguarding our employees and I’m pleased to say their skill and endeavour has enabled us to maintain safe operations and produce the products our customers require. To maintain iron and steel production (our two blast furnaces remain in operation) is a great achievement and something for which we’re extremely grateful.
Trading conditions in our markets remain challenging, including for products manufactured by our Special Profiles business in Skinningrove. Earlier this year we paused production at our Special Profiles mill in Skinningrove for three weeks and employees returned to work in April. Since then they’ve continued to produce the high-quality products the mill is renowned for, ensuring we can service market demand. However, as the market remains tough, we’ve now taken the decision to again temporarily pause production at Skinningrove for three weeks, starting on Saturday June 13. While a small number of employees will remain on site, around 300 of our people will be furloughed. We appreciate this will be a worrying time for our people, particularly those in our Special Profiles business, but this is a temporary measure and – like last time – we’ll look to resume production at the earliest opportunity.
We thank all our employees for their continued commitment and flexibility. This has been a challenging time for all of us, and we couldn’t have continued to safely fulfil customer orders and support the UK’s economic recovery without their dedication. We also thank Jingye for their unwavering commitment to the business, as well as our customers, suppliers and contractors, trade union colleagues and the Government for their valuable support.