AN eleventh hour deal is being thrashed out to ensure thousands of Teesside steel workers get their monthly pay packets tomorrow morning.

The Government has been locked in negotiations with SSI and its financial backers to agree an export tax rebate that freed up more than £4m to pay salaries on time.

All week fears have mounted that the cash-strapped firm would fail to pay wages following its decision a week ago to suspend production at Redcar steelworks because it had run out of money. Workers have endured seven days of agony as Thailand-based SSI has refused to outline its plans and ignored repeated requests for face to face talks with Tees MPs and unions.

Ministers have said that efforts by the Treasury to free up tax revenue showed the Government was aware of the urgency of the situation. But tax breaks fall well short of the kind of support campaigners attending this evening’s Keep It Alight rally in Redcar want from David Cameron.

If wages do appear in bank accounts it will give steelworkers and their families only temporary respite. The next crisis on the horizon is the perilous state of Redcar Coke Ovens which will run out of fuel this weekend. Unless they are kept alight the ovens will suffer massive damage, leaving SSI, or future plant owners with a multi-million pound bill, and cast more doubt on the plant’s survival hopes.

Ironically, there is a huge stockpile of coal at the site that could power the ovens, but unless SSI can find the money to pay for it, County Durham fuel supplier Hargreaves Services will not allow it to be used. Ships are waiting off Teesport laden with raw materials, but SSI is unable to pay for the cargoes to be unloaded that would stop the furnaces going cold.

Esh Winning-based Hargreaves and Teesport operator PD Ports are among scores of local firms that have been working with SSI to keep the plant alive. But patience is starting to wear thin even among its most loyal suppliers who are unwilling to continue providing the firm with materials, water, electricity, site services and transport unless they are given assurances that bills will be paid.

Since he called a halt to production last Friday morning, however, Win Viriyaprapaikit, SSI President, has failed to make any statement to his Teesside workforce or address the concerns of suppliers. SSI has become notorious for paying bills at the last minute. There are hopes that Mr Win, who has ploughed more than £1bn into the plant, might once again be playing brinkmanship to buy himself time while he restructures debt payments with banks, or secures financial support from the Treasury.

David Cameron said his Government would do “everything that we can” to keep steelmaking on Teesside, but so far his ministers have declined requests for bail-out cash.

At tonight's rally on the Redcar sea shore families pleaded with Mr Cameron to save the region's last surviving steel plant. The spirit of the local community was plain to see, but unless a rescue deal can be struck in the coming hours the fires will go out.