12,500 jobs could go at British Steel

BRITISH Steel could announce as many as 12,500 white-collar redundancies by March 2001, with about 4,000 of these set to go by September this year, according to the US investment house Salomon Smith Barney.

The group, which announces full-year 1997-98 results next month, has been silent on the extent of its downsizing programme since sterling's strength against the mark began to eat into profits and undermine prices.

While it has already identified some 2,000 job losses over an 18-month period, British Steel's chief executive, Sir Brian Moffat, has refused to discuss any further cuts involved in its strategy to reduce costs - including manpower reductions, better supply management and the upgrading of information technology.

Most analysts had pencilled in 10,000 job losses over five years as a result of the restructuring, but Terence Sinclair, of Salomon Smith Barney, reckons the total could be nearer 12,500. "The total cost savings here could be around pounds 300m," he said in an investment note yesterday. He believes that 4,000 jobs could go by September.

British Steel refused to comment, but said the position on jobs and restructuring had not changed. .