Dialogue 'open' over Corus jobs

There are 1,920 employees at the Teesside plant

Steelmaker Corus has confirmed it has opened a dialogue with Italian corporation Marcegaglia over its threatened Redcar plant.

Almost 2,000 jobs are at risk after a consortium led by Marcegaglia pulled out of a 10-year contract.

The town's MP Vera Baird has urged Corus to agree to talks to preserve trade for Teesside Cast Products.

A Corus spokesman confirmed that "contact has been ongoing" but would not go into further detail.

Ms Baird flew out to Italy earlier this month to hold a meeting with Antonio Marcegaglia, where she presented him with a petition signed by 240 businesses.

She said he had been keen to meet with Corus in the UK to find a way to preserve production at Redcar.

'In touch'

Speaking after the meeting, she said: "The problem is that relations with Corus are not good at the moment because they believe the consortium walked away from the contract, but Marcegaglia feel that they have done nothing wrong.

"If Corus are right they get damages in two years but that doesn't keep my constituents' jobs."

On Monday, a spokesman for Corus said: "Currently contact is ongoing between us, but we don't want to go into detail.

"We're not going to enter into a public debate, but we are in touch and want to leave it there so we can have talks in a fruitful atmosphere."

The agreement which has fallen through was signed in 2004 and committed the consortium of Marcegaglia, Dongkuk Steel Mills Co Ltd, Duferco Participations Holding Ltd and Alvory SA, to buying just under 78% of the plant's production for 10 years.