Corus, Europe's second largest steel producer which is owned by India's Tata Steel, has announced that it will reconsider a proposal to extend the operation of the Teesside plant in Redcar, UK and will postpone the partial mothballing of the plant to the end of February after a meeting with union leaders.
In a press release issued on Monday, January 12, Corus also confirmed its intention to continue operating the South Bank Coke Ovens, following the improvement in the market conditions for coke. As a result of this decision about 120 additional jobs will be retained.
Corus also said that a productive first meeting was held with trade union leaders about the future of the Teesside Cast Products (TCP), which before the meeting had been due to close at the end of January with the loss of about 1,700 jobs.
The decision to mothball TCP follows efforts by Corus over the past eight months to secure a long-term future for the plant after the failure of four international slab buyers to fulfil their obligations under a 10-year contract that they signed with Corus in 2004. This contract committed the consortium in question to buying about 80 percent of the plant's production for ten years.