Mothballing of plant could affect 10,000

THE long-term mothballing of the Corus steel plant at Redcar will have a “significant impact”

and could affect as many as 10,000 workers, it was claimed last night.

Alastair Thomson, dean of the Business School at Teesside University, said: “This is bad news for the region – you are taking out one of the key elements of the economic infrastructure in the Tees Valley.

“It will have a significant impact. The Redcar plant has been a major contributor to our local economy, which may not be there going forward.”

Mr Thomson said as many as 10,000 people could be connected to the Corus plant and face the threat of redundancy.

He said: “There are implications in a number of different directions, not just for the people at the plant itself but the people involved in supplying Corus with goods and services will be badly affected.

“Then you have the ancillary staff, cleaners, catering people, security staff… you quite quickly work up a large number of affected people.”

Mr Thomson said he believed Corus was the fourth or fifth biggest employer in the area and the largest private sector employer on Teesside.

He also said that once the plant, which goes under the name of Teesside Cast Products (TCP), was mothballed it would be very difficult to get it up and running again.

“Essentially, mothballing the plant means switching the gas supply off, turning the water off at the mains and making sure the plant is kept in reasonable repair. To get the blast furnace running and everything else operational is not like putting the video on standby and hitting the button to get it all started again.

“Running a blast furnace involves quite complicated technology and it is very difficult to get it running at the right temperature. There will be big costs involved in getting going again.”

Mr Thomson praised the Redcar plant, adding: “The management team have done a fantastic job over the years and will want to keep all their options open.

“The economic downturn does not help, but within the steel industry Corus at Redcar is seen as highly efficient and has reinvented itself over the past five or ten years.”

Mr Thomson said the region had to “pull together”.

He said: “We need a strategy that reflects this news and we need to think about how we can support the people that may be out of work and replace the infrastructure that supports our local economy.”

Laura Woods, director of academic enterprise at Teesside University, said it had funding enabling it to assist with re-training Corus workers and upgrading skills and qualifications.

She said: “Whatever the outcome of the discussions over TCP’s future, we are ready to work closely with the company to support its employees in whatever ways we can.”