This continues the worrying trend in an industry that has seen thousands of workers retrenched in the last three months, thanks in large part to the global market downturn and the cheap exports being dumped by China.

The town has called on Tata for a comprehensive plan to stem the current £1million ($1.46) a week losses and prevent the same fate as Scunthorpe and Redcar, who had their steelworks shut down, leaving over 2500 staff unemployed.

The community trade union has said it would be meeting Tata Steel to discuss talks of impending retrenchments, and how best to create a sustainable steel industry.