THE UK’s next generation of steel workers face misery, with many expected to lose their jobs in a company restructure, unions have warned.

Tata Steel is reorganising its South Wales-based strip products business, as it bids to cover crippling operating costs with a focus on higher value specialist steels.

Unions claim 250 jobs will be axed in the move, which affects Tata’s Llanwern mill.

Tata said workers will be re-deployed across the company, though bosses have admitted contractors could be affected.

The proposals are not thought to affect Tata’s North-East operations, where its Long Products division employs about 750 workers and includes the Teesside Beam Mill, near Redcar, and a special profiles plant, at Skinningrove, east Cleveland.

Reacting to the plans, Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community union and chairman of the National Trade Union steel co-ordinating committee, said: “It is tragic these people, who have been trained up by Tata and would normally be considered the future of the business, are being let go in the drive to remain competitive.

“Tata and the entire UK steel industry is under huge pressure to become sustainable, and we desperately need the Government to stand up for steel.”

Reiterating the need for Government support, Dave Hulse, GMB national officer, added: “We will see local communities destroyed with mass unemployment if we don’t act.”

Stuart Wilkie, Tata’s UK director of strip products, said the firm is being buffeted by cheaper imports, the strong pound and higher energy prices.

He added: “We have invested upwards of £350m to improve the steel industry in Wales in the past five years.

“But surging, and often unfairly traded, imports have combined with a strong pound to create a very challenging business environment.

“We need to concentrate more on sales of differentiated products to key sectors, including automotive, engineering, construction, packaging and consumer goods.”

Tata’s Wales plans come after it announced proposals to restructure its speciality and bar business, putting hundreds of South Yorkshire jobs at risk.

It also revealed 25 job cuts at Skinningrove, owing to market pressures and the plant’s demand-led status, though none of those are expected to be compulsory redundancies.