TATA Steel said it had won the first round of a legal battle against the consortium that pulled out of a deal to buy its Teesside steel, leading to the mothballing of its Redcar plant.

Teesside Cast Products was partially mothballed in February last year following the decision by the international consortium in 2009, consisting of Marcegaglia, Dongkuk, Duferco and Ternium Procurement, to pull out half-way through a ten-year agreement to take 78 per cent of the slab it produced.

Tata Steel UK, formerly Corus, said it had received a partial final award in its favour in an ongoing arbitration proceeding between itself and the consortium on January 5.

In a statement, the firm said: “The arbitral tribunal, among other things, found that the Off-Takers did not validly terminate their offtake agreements.

“The arbitration proceedings are being held under the auspices of the ICC International Court of Arbitration.

“The arbitration proceedings will now move to the next phase of determining the amount of damages.”