TALKS surrounding a joint venture at Corus's Teesside division, which would secure more than 2,500 jobs, have reached a critical stage.

As the steel company's division at Redcar, Teesside Cast Products (TCP), marked a milestone in exporting its millionth tonne of steel from Teesport, managing director Colin Muncie said talks to establish a joint venture were at a sensitive stage.

Although Corus chief executive Philippe Varin has said he believed an agreement would be reached by the New Year, Mr Muncie said he could not say whether it would be before or after January 1.

"As you can appreciate with these things, it is at a sensitive stage at the moment," he said.

"The timing of the transaction is less important to us than the quality of the transaction.

"There has been a lot of speculation about it, but what we try to do is communicate directly with our employees, and when there is something to tell them, we will tell them.

"What I can say is that the level of interest in TCP has been impressive.

"We will continue to use the brilliant market conditions we have to keep the business going, and just in case the conditions are not so favourable in the future, we are taking a number of improvement initiatives to make our process more cost effective."

Corus wants to sell 80 per cent of the TCP business, which is currently experiencing a renaissance due to the worldwide shortage of the type of unfinished steel slab made at Redcar.

Rising steel prices have meant the products made at TCP are much in demand, particularly in the Far East.

The millionth tonne of steel slab was loaded on to a vessel bound for one of TCP's major customers, Dongkuk, of South Korea, at Teesport yesterday.

Dongkuk was one of four companies said earlier this year to be in a consortium looking at a partnership with Corus at TCP.

More than 2,500 workers at Teesside have faced an uncertain future since Corus said it no longer needed the slab steel products and wanted to sell the factory as part of a restructuring process.

Tony Poynter, chairman of Teesside's multi-union steel committee, said workers were looking forward to a deal being agreed.

Mr Muncie and Mr Poynter yesterday paid tribute to the steel workers on Teesside.

Mr Poynter said: "Teesside's steel workers have shown once again that when their backs are against the wall, they can really come up with the goods."

TCP's survival depends on its exports business, which is why yesterday's milestone was so important.