STEELMAKER Corus will begin the partial mothball of a plant on Teesside today, a move that may signal the beginning of the end for steelmaking in the traditional industrial town.
Corus, owned by India’s Tata Steel, said the Teesside cast products plant would be kept ready for a possible future restart and that it was open to “credible offers”.
The company had said in December that it would begin the mothballing, leading to the loss of 1,700 jobs, in early 2010 after it failed to secure a long-term partner for the site’s output.
“The timing of the start of this process is determined by the availability of stocks of iron ore on the ground in Teesside. These have now run out,” Corus said in a statement today.
