Benteler to close Bottrop tube plant

Benteler says it plans to close its Bottrop welded tube plant in 2022. The firm has provided details of its plan announced in November for a restructuring and associated job cuts at its Steel/Tube division.

Bottrop capacities will be gradually reduced from 2020. Most production will be successively transferred to Schloss Neuhaus and Paderborn. This will lead to a reduction of up to 255 jobs at Bottrop, but 100 new jobs – mainly in production – are to be created at Schloss Neuhaus and Paderborn. In the field of seamless tubes, Benteler says it will focus more strongly on core markets, and will adapt capacities at the Dinslaken plant. 

All the measures will lead to an overall reduction in employment of up to 600 jobs in the next three years, in a socially responsible manner, Benteler tells Kallanish. Sites affected will be Bottrop (up to 255 jobs), Dinslaken (up to 90 jobs) and Lingen (up to 10 jobs), and in the administration and indirect areas in Paderborn/Schloss Neuhaus (up to 195 jobs).

Benteler reiterates that the decisions were instigated by a strongly changed market environment. Prices in the global steel tube market are declining, and the outlook for the oil & gas, automotive and industrial markets is still deteriorating, it says.