Steel consortium agree to talk, but could be a

A union has said it has made a “significant breakthrough” in getting a consortium back in talks to save a Corus steel deal, along with 3,000 jobs.

In May this year a 2004 contract was ripped up to help the Corus Teeside Cast Products in Redcar “offtake” up to 78% of their output after the steel industry suffered from a massive decline in demand.

The Community union, which represents most of the workers at the plant, has claimed a significant breakthrough with the consortium, which includes Marcegaglia, of Italy, and Dongkuk, of Korea.

General secretary Michael Leahy said: “It’s taken a lot of conversations between Community, the highest levels of Government, Tata (the owners of Corus) and the consortium, but we finally have an agreement that the two parties will sit down to try and find a solution that could save the future of Teeside steelmaking.

“We are pressing for Corus and the consortium to set a date as soon as possible.

“We do not know if their meeting will be a party or a wake, but the most important point is that all sides enter discussions mindful of the thousands of jobs and the community on Teeside that are depending on a deal.”

There was a memorandum of understanding (MOU) agreed, which would mean that Corus could not speak to any other potential buyer until the end of last month, and even though they let it expire early this month, no other buyer has been found.

A spokeswoman for the consortium said: “I can confirm the MOU has expired but we don’t have any other comment to make at the moment.”