STEELMAKER Corus last night denied it had plans to close part of its Teesside works with the loss of 75 jobs.

The bloom mill in Redcar is understood to be facing closure as the metals firm seeks a way to resolve its mounting debt problem.

Staff at the plant contacted The Northern Echo after hearing blooms were not part of future production plans for Teesside.

Union officials said that a lack of investment by the Anglo-Dutch firm made it virtually inevitable that the plant would close.

In the past, Corus has denied that areas of the business were to be cut - only for redundancies to then be announced.

Workers on Teesside will hope this latest jobs scare is nothing more than rumour, but Mick Mannion of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation was worried for the future.

He said: "The bloom caster is fairly old and unsophisticated.

"Blooms are generally consumed by the mills attached to the place that makes the bloom. Frankly, we do not have a mill that uses them.

"The market for blooms in our area has gone and I know that bloom is struggling to continue as it is.

"Having said that, it can continue as long as we can consume it."

Teesside blooms are the raw ingredient in a range of products such as the Caterpillar tracks made at Skinningrove.

The jobs worries were expressed on the same day it was revealed that Corus was continuing with preparations to increase the independence of the Teesside operation.

The company announced in April that it was planning to stop taking steel from the region for internal usage, prefering instead to expand plants at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot.

Since then, it has been researching international markets and lining up external contracts.

Andrew Page, Corus Construction and Industrial managing director, this week told staff that Teesside operations would be a stand-alone business unit by January.

It will be called Teesside Cast Products (TCP), dropping the Corus name from the title, and will report directly to executive committee member Paul Lormor.

A new managing director will be appointed to run TCP.

An internal note, obtained by The Northern Echo, said: "These new arrangements will take effect by January 2004 at the latest.

"This stand-alone position will provide Teesside Cast Products with a means to concentrate on delivering the cost reductions identified in the business plan."