Two years on and SSI’s mettle is still being tested

Tears were shed when a nine-metre slab of steaming hot grey metal embossed with white lettering “SSI UK Cast 01” rolled off the casting table to silence the doubters who had scoffed that the Save Our Steel campaign was doomed to fail.

If that moment, and the scene three days earlier when the blast furnace was relit were SSI’s emotional highlights, then the months that followed contained more than a few lows as the business struggled desperately to find its feet.

SSI’s Thai parent company showed enormous faith in the ability of Teesside’s workers, unions and management when it agreed to buy the former British Steel plant during the depths of a global recession.

It invested more than $1bn to bring the blast furnace back to life, and nurse the business through its fledgling years.

A slab of steel being cut on the production line at SSI UK in Teesside

The plant still hasn’t made a penny of profit and in its last set of accounts reported a hefty net loss of £312m. Cashflow has been a major ongoing problem. SSI stretched the patience of creditors, including the local authority which was owed £19m in unpaid business rates, nearly to breaking point. But there is also a huge amount of goodwill in the local community and across the region’s businesses, which has helped to keep the dream alive.

Steel has been made in this area for nearly 170 years. SSI bosses are determined to see that history extend for at least another 30 years.

The site is keeping alive the reputation of Teesside manufacturing around the world by shipping slabs to Thailand, Turkey, Germany and the US. 1,800 people are employed at the works and hundreds more in the regional supply chain. Last month, the five millionth tonne of steel was shipped from Teesport.

So much progress has been made by the business in the past two years it would be tragic to see it falter just as the plant closes in on its first profit- making quarter.