THE Government will pursue ''every possible angle'' to save one of the UK's biggest steel plants, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson said today.

He said he would be discussing the future of Teeside Cast Products tomorrow with Kirby Adams, the chief executive of owner Corus.

The Redcar plant, which employs almost 2,000 people, is set to be mothballed and Corus has launched a 90-day consultation on its future.

Corus, owned by Indian conglomerate Tata since 2007, said last week that a consortium of four companies from Italy, Argentina, Switzerland and Korea had unilaterally ended a 10-year agreement signed in 2004 to buy 78 per cent of the plant's production.

Lord Mandelson said at question time that there was not ''any need for a subsidy''.

''This is a profitable productive plant with high productivity shown by an excellent workforce,'' he said.

''I have asked our embassies to make contact with the consortia of companies to understand their actions and to explore the options for reopening discussions with Corus to resolve this to everyone's satisfaction.''

He added: ''Officials in my department are exploring how the Government can help resolve the dispute with the consortium of partners to the 10-year off-take agreement in a way that avoids job losses.

''I and other members of the Government will be working as hard as we possibly can and pursuing every possible avenue in support of the company to get this matter properly resolved at the earliest possible moment.''

Lord Bates, for Tories, said it was a ''world class'' steel plant and there was ''intense anger'' on Teesside that closure would be ''not because of any lack of international competitiveness but as a result of flagrant breach of contract by the people they have been supplying to''.

Lord Mandelson said that if the plant was mothballed ''the risk would be created that it would not be able to be restarted cheaply or easily''.