Steel giant Corus unveils plans for offshore wind-farm business

The European division of Indian steel-maker Tata has started building work on a new facility to produce steel structures to fix wind turbines to the seabed.

The new plant will be developed within Corus's 3,000-acre site in Redcar – home of the mothballed Teesside casting products facility.

More than 1,600 jobs were lost when the steel plant was shut down in February, ending 170 years of mass steel-making.

If Corus successfully secures enough orders for the proposed new site, it would create 220 vacancies, which the company said would be open to former employees of the Teesside cast products facility.

Corus director of product marketing Chris Elliot said: "The UK Government has approved ambitious plans to build thousands of wind turbines at sea over the next 10 years."

He went on: "In the UK alone, we estimate that about six million tonnes of steel will be needed over the next 10 years to make the foundations and tower structures for offshore wind turbines. We are positioning ourselves to take full benefit of these opportunities."

The structures – called monopiles – will be built in redeployed and re-equipped redundant buildings within the site.

A spokesman for the firm said the proposed developments would not affect continuing negotiations surrounding the mothballed Teesside facility, and the company's search for a potential buyer.

Corus was reportedly losing 100m a month in mid-2009, but after a major restructuring is now making a profit. Europe's second largest steel producer, created in 1999 through the merger of British Steel and a Dutch firm, employs around 20,000 people in the UK, including at steelworks in Port Talbot and Scunthorpe.

Corus blamed the demise of its Redcar site on falling global demand, decreasing prices, and the international consortium which pulled out of a 10-year deal to buy Redcar's output.

Trade union Unite welcomed the proposal for the 31.5m facility.

The union said it was also hopeful the mothballed Teesside cast facility would be sold soon.

Unite's national officer, Terry Pye, said: "For years workers at Corus have faced cutbacks.

"The successful sale of the Teesside Cast Products together with the new manufacturing facility would mean a brighter future for Teesside."

Thousands of Unite members working for Corus across the country are now being balloted on an improved pay offer of 3.2 per cent, backdated to April 1, 2010, with a one-off payment of 200.

The Yorkshire Post Powering Yorkshire's Future Campaign is fighting to secure jobs manufacturing wind turbines in the region, which is ideally placed to serve wind farms planned for use off the east coast.