ENGINEERING company VAI UK has secured a £20m contract with Taiwan's largest steel producer.

The contract to rebuild part of China Steel Corporation's plant is the latest in a string of contracts won by VAI this year.

The company said the contracts, collectively worth hundreds of millions of pounds, would help to secure 130 jobs at VAI's Stockton plant and would also create jobs.

The latest contract follows a £120m win last month which has helped create about 100 jobs.

Rob Hunter, director of steelmaking at VAI UK, said the orders would help secure jobs at VAI's Sheffield and Stockton sites.

He said: "We have people going out to Taiwan on a regular basis as the engineering is being done in the UK and the equipment is actually being built in Taiwan.

"But the items which are being used in the build, the big mechanical components, are being bought over here, so it will help support other businesses in the North.

"Our major markets for our business at the moment are China and Taiwan, because while they have the manufacturing skills, they do not have the engineering skills yet to do what we do.

"We are confident our business will keep one step ahead of the game because we have a strong research and development focus and we are leaders in this market.

"Over the past 12 months, we have been getting between 60 and 70 per cent of the business worldwide."

VAI will replace one mould for steel slabs, and refurbish another at the Taiwan plant.

It will also be responsible for updating the automatic manufacturing processes, supplying its most recent technology.

The contract is important for VAI because China Steel Corporation manufactures more than 11 million tonnes of crude steel each year.