Corus, Europe's second largest steel maker and owned by the Tata group, will shut down TCP's blast furnace, steel mill and one of the two coke ovens by the end of January 2010. However, it plans to keep open the wharf facility, the other coke oven and some of the power generating capacity. Corus said that the partial closure will result in the loss of about 1,700 jobs, which is about 600 fewer than previously thought.
Seven-month ago, Corus had said that the broken sale contract could lead to the closure of the Teesside steel mill in northeast England. Since then, the company had been diverting internal orders to TCP apart from securing external orders on an ad hoc basis in a bid to keep the plan open, while an alternative future for the plant was sought. This, Corus says, has cost the company about £130 million. The merchant slab plant can produce 3 million tonnes per year which, according to Corus, is not sustainable without a long-term strategic partner. The plant, with a workforce of 2,300 people, accounts for about 15% of Corus' steel production capacity.
In a statement, Corus chief executive officer Kirby Adams said, “We are acutely aware that this will be devastating news for our employees,
our contractors, their families and the local community. We extend our sincere gratitude to all of them, as well as to the management team and the trade unions on Teesside, who have all worked night and day to try and avoid this outcome.''
The company would spend £80 million to close down the plant besides covering redundancies and other contractual obligations.
Corus employee unions are unhappy over the company's move and said that it would have a disastrous impact on both the company and on the UK economy.
The company will continue to have a substantial presence in the Teesside area, employing more than 2,000 people at operations in Hartlepool, Skinningrove, the Teesside beam mill and Teesside technology centre.
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