STEELWORKERS received a boost last night when Corus announced its major export customer had joined a consortium that will help secure the jobs of more than 6,000 workers over the next ten years.

South Korean company Dongkuk - the Teesside operation's biggest export customer - has resolved financial and legal issues in its homeland to join the consortium.

Last month, Corus announced an agreement that would see Teesside Cast Products (TCP) supply three steel traders and producers - from Switzerland, Italy and Mexico - with three-quarters of the plant's output of steel slab at cost price.

Dongkuk, said to be very keen to join steel companies Duferco, Imsa and Marcegaglia, had until yesterday to join the consortium.

Stuart Mann, TCP chief engineer, said: "The fact that Dongkuk joined the consortium is great news for TCP and the region as it shows a great confidence not only in our products, but also in our workforce."

Anglo-Dutch company Corus, which revealed last month that it is on course to make its first full-year profit, will receive an extra $9m from the consortium.

The four companies, which had also pledged $72m towards a planned $100m upgrade of the TCP plant, will provide $76m of the cost.

But $14m still has to be found for the rest of the infrastructure improvements.

Rising steel prices have meant the products made at TCP are in demand, but even if demand falls, it is hoped the improved plant would survive in the long-term. Many predicted the end of steelmaking on Teesside when Corus announced 18 months ago that the Redcar plant would have to survive on its own.

TCP was formed as a stand-alone division and told to find its own markets by 2006 as there was not enough demand in the UK to make it viable.

Corus' Teesside operations employ 2,900 people, of whom 1,700 are in Teesside Cast Products, but a further 3,000 jobs in the region depend on the steelworks.