Structural steelwork contractor Severfield says it will cut about 6% of its 1,800-strong workforce in response to "trading pressures".

The York-based group, one of the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ's largest, said it had recently carried out a staffing review and that reductions were needed to mitigate the effects of headwinds. It said the reduction would come via redundancies and a recruitment freeze.

In an update to investors on the London Stock Exchange it also talked of a "stronger than normal" focus on cash generation and conservation including a reduction in capital expenditure following investment over recent years, careful working capital management, speeding up tax refunds from HMRC and other cost reduction actions.

Bosses said that while they saw a good pipeline of project opportunities, the º£½ÇÊÓÆµ and European markets were challenging with pricing under pressure for longer than anticipated and contracts not being awarded or progressing within normal timescales. The downbeat assessment came despite Severfield boasting an order book of £440m at the beginning of April, up nearly £40m on levels in February, and £327m of which is due to deliver in the next year.

About 20% of those orders are projects in continental Europe and Ireland, with a record £210m of orders in India where construction work is growing. Severfield now expects underlying pre-tax profits of between £18m-£20m for full year 2025. Net debt at £44m - representing revolving credit facility drawings of £30m and amortising term loans of £14m, was said to be better than expected.

Severfield told investors: "Looking further ahead, we have already secured some attractive large projects for FY27, and we are also seeing significant future opportunities in sectors such as manufacturing, commercial offices, including the emergence of several planned large developments in London, and data centres, driven by artificial intelligence applications which are driving even greater dependence on data centre infrastructure.

"Our businesses also remain well positioned to win work in other markets with positive long term growth trends including those which are driving the green energy transition. Our prospects across these markets provide the board with confidence that the group will deliver attractive shareholder returns in the future and our medium term growth targets remain unchanged."