What hope now for steelworks?
9:22am Tuesday 26th January 2010 The potential mothballing of the Corus Teesside Cast Products plant, near Redcar, has dominated the headlines since the announcement last month. But, with a complicated set of circumstances, Business Editor Owen McAteer analyses where it stands today. TO the layman, the solution to Corus Teesside Cast Products (TCP) staying open sounds fairly straightforward. We are in a recession, steel prices are low, so get a Government subsidy, wait for the economy to pick up and then start making profits again, right? If only it was that straightforward. In truth, even if there was not a worldwide economic downturn, TCP would be facing many of the problems it does now. The plant, producing steel slab, is set to be mothballed by the end of next month, with the loss of 1,600 jobs. The blame has been laid with an international consortium, following its decision last May to terminate its contract to buy most of Teesside’s output. If the consortium, which Corus is now t
