THOUSANDS of workers at a Corus steel plant last night received a stay of execution after bosses secured new internal orders from their parent company.

The orders for the Teesside Cast Products complex, at Redcar, operated on behalf of Corus, mean steelmaking can continue until August – when a consultation over the proposed mothballing of the plant runs out.

The move gives those fighting to save the plant more time to come up with a rescue plan.

A 90-day consultation with the 3,000 workers at Corus and their union representatives began in May after a consortium of four foreign steel slab buyers pulled out halfway through a ten-year agreement to take nearly 78 per cent of the plant’s output.

Last night, Geoff Waterfield, multi-union chairman at Corus on Teesside, said the new orders were good news.

He said : “The company is looking at the way it is making steel and they are trying to help Teesside in the best way they can.

“We have to look at all options, the company itself has give us this extra work and maybe we can get some more in the future.”

Jon Bolton, Teesside Cast Products managing director, said: “The new orders are essential to enable us to keep operating.

“They also give us time during the consultation period to look at opportunities which could secure the longer-term future of the plant.

“We have also identified sales opportunities with slab buyers around the world which we are urgently pursuing.”

Alan Clarke, chief executive of regional development agency One North East and chairman of the Corus Response Group, said: “The team at Teesside Cast Products is working hard to win export orders in international markets to generate further work and opportunities for the plant.

“The plant is firmly committed to its workforce and its Tees Valley operation and we believe it is a business which potentially has a strong future in the region, given the right market conditions.”

Redcar MP Vera Baird recently met with the head of one of the consortium, Italian-based Marcegaglia whose decision to pull out provoked the crisis, in a bid to get the firm to come back to the negotiating table.

Meanwhile, Kirby Adams, chief executive of Corus, was also due to travel to Korea to meet with Dongkuk Steel, another key member in the consortium.

However, to date none of the consortia has budged from their original position and the net is being cast further afield for new work in a bid to secure the plant’s immediate future.