United Kingdom

摘要

The quiet end-of-year market was disturbed by speculation as to where the axe will strike next among the UK plants of Corus. The pain inflicted on the company by the weakness of the euro against the pound has been essentially due to the decline of the UK market as a whole because of the loss of competitiveness of steel manufacturing activity in the UK, rather than the result of direct competition in the UK market with euro-zone steelmakers. However, loss of island sales obliged Corus to look abroad for sales, and it cannot sell at a profit into euro-zone markets from UK mills.The renewed setbacks to prices in Europe at the end of the year and the collapse of the company's long, tortuous and ultimately fruitless negotiations to acquire the long product division of Polish steelmaker Huta Katowice precipitated the need to recast company strategy. This started with the dismissal of the two joint managing directors, but will, probably some time in the first quarter, issue in announcements of plant-scale closures.