It's a tale of one city but two steel mills as one is preparing to be mothballed the other is about to reopen.

As Tata's Llanwern hot strip mill comes offline and lays off 250 employees, workers at the Liberty Steel mill are getting ready to roll steel again.

Nigel Smith was laid off on half pay over a year ago. He's been a steel man all his life starting in Ebbw Vale at 16 and following the work.

Liberty's boss is adding his voice to calls on the UK government for a consistent, affordable energy policy for high users at today's Steel Summit.

The company has plans to restart the melt shop which closed in 2007.

Melting scrap is a labour intensive process and would mean many more jobs but they're on hold at the moment because the sums don't add up.

Sanjeev Gupta, Liberty's Managing Director says affordable power from its sister power plant is the key and using cheap imported steel slabs.And men like foreman Jason Olsen have got used to steel's highs and lows.Whilst Llanwern's hot strip mill is being mothballed at the end of the month, Liberty Steel and its 150 workers are celebrating another new chapter.

 

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