On December 4, the UK-based steelmaker Corus, the European subsidiary of the Indian steel giant Tata Steel, announced that it will close the main facilites belonging to its Teesside Cast Products (TCP) business, located in northeast England at the end of January 2010, after the breaking of a binding contract for the plant's output. The move will result in the loss of about 1,700 jobs.
Accordingly TCP's blast furnace, steelmaking facility and the South Bank Coke Ovens will be shut down at the end of January 2010. However, Corus intends to keep open a number of operations, including the Redcar Wharf, Redcar Coke Ovens and some of the power generating capacity.
The decision to partially 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.
Commenting on the issue, Corus CEO 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. This is the last thing we wanted and we feel deeply about what is happening. Sadly, it has become unavoidable, through no fault of our people on Teesside."
The plant in question is capable of producing three million mt of slab per year.