Company executives are to march alongside thousands of workers to urge the European Commission to take urgent action to halt the threat of thousands of fresh job losses in the crisis-hit steel industry.

More than 5,000 steel employees are expected to join a huge demonstration in Brussels on Monday to protest at a "flood" of cheap imports from China and other countries.

Thousands of job losses have been announced in recent months across the UK and more are feared as a result of cheap imports and high energy costs.

Karl Koehler, European chief executive of Tata Steel, who will join the march, warned that the situation facing the industry was "perilous".

He said: "If the European Commission does not take immediate and robust action, thousands of jobs in the industry - and many thousands more in the wider supply chain - will be threatened.

"We are not asking for special treatment. Instead, we are asking for the European Commission to stand up for fair trade and to give European steelmakers a chance to compete on a level-playing field."

Eurofer, the European steel association, said Chinese steel was being exported at prices below the cost of production.

Axel Eggert, director general of Eurofer, said: "The march strikes at the heart of the challenges facing the European steel industry. We are staunch advocates for free and fair trade. Dumped steel imports from China, volumes of which have doubled in 18 months, are flooding the EU market and directly causing irreversible closures and job losses across the EU steel sector."

Dave Hulse, national officer of the GMB, said: "The EU Commission has done next to nothing to save steel jobs. The Commission is now directly responsible for bringing more misery to the industry that has been rocked with job losses and the destruction of communities.

"We need the Prime Minister to get off the fence and forcefully tell Brussels that toothless action will do nothing whatsoever to assist the UK steel industry."