Corus to end 150 years of steelmaking at Teesside this week

Corus, the European subsidiary of Tata Steel, will mothball its Teesside Cast Products plant (TCP) in the UK by the end of this week, bringing to an end a heritage of 150 years of steelmaking at Teesside.

Employees at Teesside plant have told today by the management that steel production will cease within a week.

Corus, the European subsidiary of Tata Steel had agreed in mid-January to postpone the partial closure of its Teesside Cast Products plant (TCP) in the UK by a month, following a meeting with the trade union task force. (See: Corus postpones partial closure of Teesside plant by a month)

In May, Corus Steel, Europe's second biggest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal, had said that it would close the TCP unit in northeast England, after an international consortium in May pulled out prematurely from a 10-year slab steel purchasing agreement to lift around 78 per cent of TCP's 3.5 million tonnes production every year. (See: Consortium deal pull out may hit 2,000 jobs at Corus)

In mid-December, a joint task force comprising the management of Corus and the union Unite was set up to explore options other than closing the plant in order to save 1,700 jobs as well as nearly 3,000 other full time jobs with contractors working at TCP and another 5,000 jobs at sub-contractors and suppliers.

Corus had been trying to secure external orders on an ad hoc basis in a bid to keep the plant open while an alternative future for the plant was sought.
This had cost the company about £130 million till September and the steelmaker said in December that operating a 3.5 million tonnes per year merchant slab plant was not sustainable without a long-term strategic partner.