STEELMAKING on Teesside was dealt another hammer blow yesterday after it was revealed that more than 400 jobs are to be lost at four Corus plants.

And there was more bad news last night as the group’s parent company, Tata Steel, warned it was weeks away from mothballing the blast furnace at Teesside Cast Products, putting 3,000 jobs at risk.

Yesterday’s job losses came as part of a move to axe 2,000 jobs across the UK because of to a huge drop-off in orders.

Corus said 156 jobs were under threat at the Hartlepool Corus Tubes plant, 150 at Lackenby, 113 at Skinningrove, which are both Corus Long Products divisions, and nine in the Darlington Corus Trailers site.

Another 3,000 employees at Teesside Cast Products (TCP) are already facing an uncertain future, after the deal for an international steelbuying consortium to take up 80 per cent of its output to 2014 was terminated.

The plant, in Redcar, could be mothballed if a buyer for the site, or an alternative buyer for the majority of its output, cannot be found. At present, its future is secured until August because of orders placed from within the Corus group.

Corus managers last night denied a decision had been taken on the future of the furnace, despite reports quoting the chief executive of Tata’s European operations as saying the plant would be closed.

Nationwide, Corus has cut nearly 3,000 jobs in the past few months as the demand for its steel continues to diminish, with 2,500 redundancies made in January and 400 last November.

As part of those announcements, the North-East was hit by 49 job losses in Hartlepool and four in Blaydon, North Tyneside, in November, and a further 47 on Teesside, in January.

Last night, the prospect of more than 400 further job losses in Teesside’s steelmaking industry was met with sadness.

Bob Bolam, regional organiser for the Unite union, said Government intervention was needed to help UK steelmaking.

“This is yet another absolutely devastating blow for Teesside and its economy.

These are high-quality, highly- skilled jobs that are being lost, and the impact on this region is devastating,” he said.

“We would call on the Government to urgently support steelmaking in the UK. Intervention is badly needed.”

Ashok Kumar, MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, who worked at British Steel before it became Corus, said: “As someone who earned his living as a British Steel employee before entering Parliament I feel very sad when I heard this news. Steel making is in my blood.”

The Northern Echo exclusively revealed last week how Prime Minister Gordon Brown had pledged to do everything possible to save the TCP plant, and has said he will speak directly with Corus parent company Tata Steel to help broker a way forward and help mend soured relations between Corus and the consortium, headed by Italian-based Marcegaglia, and bring them back to the negotiating table.

Yesterday, Business Minister Pat McFadden said the Government would continue to work with Corus.

George Dunning, leader of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, and also a former steelworker, said: “This is a really difficult and depressing time.

“We cannot hide the fact that this represents another body blow for the region, but we must try to remain resolute in our fight for every job.”

Greg Clark, Shadow Minister for Teesside, added: “This is another devastating blow for Teesside, and for the hundreds of people directly affected as well as their families.”

A rally is planned in Redcar on Saturday, July 18, at 1pm, to highlight the plight of Corus, and Unite organiser Mr Bolam last night reminded people to attend.