(Trinidad Guardian) Eighty-five workers of Caribbean Steel Mills (CSM) will soon be on the breadline as the company has decided to stop manufacturing steel products. A date for the closure of the company has being discussed with the recognised trade union, the Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU).
“After 37 years in the steel manufacturing business, manufacturing operations at Caribbean Steel Mills Ltd will be discontinued,” read a statement from the company. CSM stated that like many other manufacturing concerns in T&T, it has suffered the effects of the significant slow down in the economy. “Two further critical factors have impacted negatively on CSM. Firstly, the price of raw material, together with conversion costs to finished goods, exceed the landed costs of imported finished goods.
Secondly, sales have decreased by as much as 55 per cent,” the statement read. “As a result, CSM’s manufacturing business cannot be re-financed. As such, operations are not economically viable in today’s market place. Accordingly, the company must discontinue manufacturing with the unavoidable result of having to make its workforce of approximately 100 redundant.”
