Corus to close sites,cut 1,700 jobs

Tata Steel's Corus said it will halt operations at some of its facilities at its TCP business in the UK by next month.

Tata Steel’s European arm Corus said it will halt operations at some of its facilities at its Teesside Cast Products (TCP) business in the UK by next month,rendering as many as 1,700 people jobless.

“TCP’s Redcar Blast Furnace,Lackenby steel-making and the

South Bank Coke Ovens will be mothballed at the end of January 2010,” the company said in a statement here.

However,it said the Anglo-Dutch steel maker “intends to keep open a number of operations,including the Redcar Wharf,Redcar Coke Ovens and some of the power generating capacity”.

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In May,a consortium of international buyers broke the 10-year offtake agreement with TCP which forced Corus to consider mothballing its mills.

“An international consortium’s breaking of a binding contract has led Corus to partially implement the proposal announced in May 2009 of mothballing some of the facilities belonging to the Teesside Cast Products (TCP) business in northeast England,” it said.

“The partial mothballing will result in the loss of about 1,700 jobs,around 600 fewer than envisaged earlier this year,” it added.

To keep operations at TCP alive,Corus has been channelising internal orders to the TCP which was also getting some demand from outside.

“This has cost the company about 130 million pound.

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Operating 3 million tonnes per year merchant slab plant is not sustainable without a long-term strategic partner,” Corus added.