THOUSANDS of under-threat steel workers have been told their jobs are safe for another two months.

A 90-day consultation with workers at Corus Teesside Cast Products (TCP) plant, in Redcar, which it was feared would end in heavy job losses and the mothballing of the plant, had been due to finish on Friday.

But the company yesterday confirmed that, having secured new orders, the consultation exercise would be extended.

A spokesman said: “Corus is pleased to confirm that it has secured new orders for its Teesside Cast Products plant until the end of September.

“This gives the company more time to find a long-term solution for TCP and has led to the consultation process being extended until the end of September.

“Employees have been informed of the consultation extension “Corus continues to do everything possible to keep the plant open.”

However, the spokesman added: “If a long-term solution for TCP cannot be found, the probable outcome continues to be mothballing.”

The plant provides employment for 2,000 staff and 1,000 contractors.

A 90-day consultation period started in early May as Corus bosses admitted it was difficult to see a way in which it could continue to operate.

It came after an international consortium – consisting of Marcegaglia, Dongkuk, Duferco and Ternium Procurement – pulled out of an agreement, signed in 2004, to take 78 per cent of the output from the Redcar plant for ten years.

Corus put internal orders into the plant to keep it going while solutions were sought, but in recent weeks it has received external orders as the international steel market picked up.

Redcar MP Vera Baird said: “The important thing about the extension is that it is fuelled by some new orders.

“They have got an absolutely full order book for steel to the end of September, obviously helped by the fact the market price of steel has gone back up.

“What is very, very cheering is that we have been kept going so far through internal orders from Corus, but these new orders are export orders.

“My understanding is there are customers out there who are currently buying steel who seem interested, possibly, in having a longer-term relationship.”

In January, two members of the consortium – Marcegaglia, of Italy, and Korea’s Dongkuk Steel – signed a memorandum of understanding to buy the TCP plant, but that has since expired.

Jimmy Skivington, regional organiser for the GMB, one of the unions representing workers at the plant, said: “It is excellent news that the company has been able to secure more work to the end of September, which gives us a prolonged opportunity to find further work and buyers for the TCP operation.

“Hopefully, we can get a couple of buyers interested or even more offtakers.”