Sheffield Industry - The last stainless steel
WORKERS, DEC 2005 ISSUE
Sheffield is to see the closure of its last stainless steel plant in early 2006. Sheffield, where stainless steel was invented in 1913, has now reached the end of the road for steel production. 700 steel workers are to be made redundant and the annual 300,000 tons of products transferred to other plants belonging to the Finnish owners, Outokumpu.
The embossed hallmark Made in Sheffield was a sign of quality and excellence and the city supplied cutlery to the whole world. Sheffield had over 40,000 steel workers in 1980, but soon its fame will rest only in an industrial memory.