THE rebirth of Teesside's iron and steel-making industry is the heartwarming business story of the year that continues to produce nuggets of good news.

This week, dockers at PD Ports are loading the biggest cargo of slab steel ever to leave Teesport. The 88,000-tonne load, valued at about £30m, was produced by SSI UK in Redcar.

It will be the second weekly shipment to leave our region for SSI's rolling mill on the Malay Peninsula. Thanks to NorthEast steelworkers, annual UK exports to Thailand will soon double in value and wipe out our balance of payments deficit with an important trading partner.

FORMER Trade Minister Lord Digby Jones said his time in Gordon Brown's government was a "de-humanising" experience. The ex-head of the CBI is in animated mood on page 26 of today's Jobs & Business supplement as he shares his opinions on everyone from George Osborne to Lord Alan Sugar.

One of Lord Jones' favourite sayings is that if Britain doesn't start competing then China will eat our lunch and India will eat our dinner. News last week that a Shanghai-based company had bought a majority stake in Weetabix suggests Asian investors don't skip breakfast either.

That deal was followed by a Thai food firm tabling a £2.5bn bid for Birds Eye, the frozen food firm whose avuncular captain has fed breadcrumbed fish to generations of hungry Britons.

Economists reckon that an emergent Asian middle class will dictate global consumer trends over the next decade but even Lord Jones couldn't have predicted that they would develop an appetite for the convenience foods of our childhood.

LORD Jones yesterday weighed into the row sparked by Foreign Secretary William Hague's comment that businesses need to stop complaining and work hard to generate growth, branding the remarks "a bit rich".

I have spoken to North-East business owners and their staff who are working six days a week, 18 hours a day, foregoing holidays and I know of at least one building firm boss who has stopped drawing a salary to help balance the books. What do you mean by "work hard", Mr Hague?