THERE have been renewed calls for improvements to be made to Teesport to give steelmaker Corus a better chance of survival.

On a fact finding visit to Corus's Redcar plant, Liberal Democrat European spokeswoman Fiona Hall said the expansion and upgrade of Teesport was a crucial element in what she called a viable and robust business plan going forward.

Anglo-Dutch owned Corus plans to turn its Teesside operation into a stand-alone company, selling slab steel on the international market.

Fiona Hall, who visited the Redcar site with Dutch Liberal Democrat MEP Herman Vermeer, said: "There is simply not enough capacity at Teesport to have the throughput of slab steel that is required for Corus to be a successful business."

There needed to be a concerted effort to ensure that investment was in place to upgrade Teesport, she said.

There was speculation yesterday that Russian metal magnates Oleg Deripaska and Alisher Usmanov could broker an agreement to run Teesside after the pair increased their stake in Corus.

Corus spokesman Mike Hitchcock did not rule out such a move, but said: "We are in the very early stages of looking for joint-venture partners for Teesside Cast Products."

On Teesport, he said: "If we are going to turn Teesside from a producer of steel for Corus to an international supplier of slab steel, then we need to have a port from which we can export some three million tonnes a year.

"That is a huge operation and an upgrade of Teesport will be needed and we would like support in that direction."

Regional development agency One NorthEast and its partners in the Corus task group have commissioned a report to look at future infrastructure requirements which could include improving port facilities on Teesside.