The Thamesteel plant in Sheerness, Kent, has
entered administration, leaving 300 steelworkers at risk of losing their jobs.
The £100 million turnover business is one of the largest private firms on the Isle of Sheppey, and in its own words is “one of the fastest growing steel manufacturers in the UK”. It produces steel bars, which strengthen the cement used in the building sector.
Rod Weston from the accountancy firm Mazars has been brought in to manage the administration process for the firm, which had been in talks with international commodities trader Trafigura about a rescue package, but the potential deal collapsed.
Mr Weston said there has been interest from potential buyers, and that he would have to make over 300 of Thamesteel’s 400-strong workforce redundant immediately.
The business has not been operating for several weeks and the employees have not had any pay this year.
Al-Tuwairqi purchased the plant in 2002 following the failure of ASW. It has injected £25 million into the business since then.
Thamesteel achieved sales of £200 million in 2010, Mr Weston said. In the summer of 2010 it was making over 100 tonnes an hour – a plant record.
Al-Tuwairqi’s original intention for the plant was to make hundreds of thousands of tonnes of billet (raw steel bars) to be shipped to its Dammam rolling mill in Saudi Arabia.
