A POTENTIAL saviour has emerged for a North-East steelworks facing closure.

Talks have already have started with at least one company interested in buying Weardale Steel.

Administrators, who have taken over the management of the company's manufacturing plant at Wolsingham, in County Durham, told The Northern Echo yesterday: "There has been some interest shown by prospective buyers and we have started talks with one of them today."

Eastwood Industries went into administration only seven weeks after buying the 140-year-old company, based in Wolsingham, County Durham, for £1.

The future now looks bleak for the company which helped build the Gateshead Angel of the North - unless a new buyer can be found.

Union officials welcomed news of a potential rescue bid.

Kenny Lally, Amicus shop steward at the steelworks, said: "This is the sort of news we want to hear. It shows that the door is still open for steel production to continue in Weardale."

But Jeremy Priestley, managing partner with the Sheffield-based administrators Poppleton and Appleby, played down the discussions yesterday.

He said the talks were "at an early stage" and he could not reveal any details about the prospective buyer.

Weardale Steel was put in the hands of the administrators only seven weeks after being taken over by Eastwood Industries, a Midlands firm.

It was subsequently discovered that one of Eastwood's co-directors, Adrian Taft, had been a director of a transport firm, which went into liquidation earlier this year with debts of £155,475. A Department of Trade and Industry investigation has started into the takeover, which resulted in the bulk of the 89-strong workforce at Wolsingham, including its managing director Bill Cooper, being made redundant.

Mr Cooper has offered his knowledge and long experience in the steel industry to the administrators to help secure a buyer for the 140-year-old steelworks - a world leader in the manufacture of ships rudders.

Read more about the Working for a future campaign here.