A STEEL firm is supporting a rail link revamp.

British Steel has a deal to supply nearly ten miles of track for the Tyne and Wear Metro.

The contract represents another coup for British Steel, which employs hundreds of workers across the North-East and was last year formed from Tata Steel’s loss-making Long Products division.

Under its Metro deal, the company’s steel will be used for years to come on links between the Tynemouth and Northumberland Park stations, and the route between Chillingham Road and St James.

It also supplied rail to replace tunnel tracks.

Peter Smith, British Steel’s managing director for rail, said: “Helping develop and maintain transit systems is a key objective.”

The work forms part of a £350m redevelopment of the Metro by Nexus, the public body which owns and manages the link, with the rail made in British Steel’s Scunthorpe base.

However, bosses say the company’s North- East bases, which include the Teesside Beam Mill, near Redcar, a Darlington steel finishing site and a York design base, are playing an intrinsic role in its future.

Last year, they revealed steel processed at the Beam Mill will be used on London skyscrapers, with its Beam Mill also due to roll steel for Scunthorpe United’s new 12,000- seat football stadium.

Additionally, it has spent nearly £2m to improve equipment at its plant in Skinningrove, in east Cleveland, which officials say has provided scope to improve surface quality on parts for the forklift truck and excavator bucket markets.

Bosses last month revealed British Steel, owned by investor Greybull Capital after it paid Tata £1 for Long Products, ended its third quarter in profit.

At the time, the business confirmed a three per cent pay cut, agreed by workers last year to smooth British Steel’s inception, is expected to be reversed later this year.