Steel Strip

Corus, the steelmaker, was accused on Wednesday of not wanting to sell its Teesside Cast Products plant for competitive reasons.

With jobs of 1,600 at TCP on the line only hours before mothballing starts on Friday, Ray Mallon, Middlesbrough’s elected mayor, claimed a credible consortium interested in buying the plant had received no response from Corus to a request to “look at the books” and to allow due diligence.

Unite, the trades union, attacked mothballing as a “disgraceful charade” and a “smoke screen” to give the impression Corus, owned by Tata Steel of India, wanted to sell TCP once it had interested buyers.

Spotted in the FT this morning in a report by Chris Tighe go here for the full story. There are several reports this morning of “credible” approaches regarding the Teeside plant. If these are genuine it casts serious doubt on Tata’s real motivation for the closure.