Corus to sell Teesside cast products

To that end, the company signed a memorandum of understanding today with Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) detailing the assets to be sold, including the Redcar and South Bank coke ovens, TCP’s power generation facilities and sinter plant, the Redcar Blast Furnace and the Lackenby Steelmaking facilities.

The deal, if successfully concluded, is expected to create a number of new jobs at the plant in addition to TCP’s existing workforce of over 700.

A sale agreement would also result in Corus and SSI operating Redcar Wharf (TCP’s bulk terminal) as a joint venture, giving Corus the flexibility to use Teesside to serve its other steelmaking operations, while also meeting SSI’s requirements on Teesside.

Corus MD and CEO Kirby Adams said: ’We are very pleased to announce this significant progress in our long-held objective to sell the TCP assets to a strategic industry investor. This is the first of several steps required to reach a definitive sale agreement in the coming months which should result in the restart of steelmaking on Teesside in the first half of 2011.’