FOUR thousands tonnes of steel will leave Teesside today bound for New York to be used in the rebuilding project at Ground Zero.

A vessel laden with steel sections from the Corus Beam Mill at Lackenby will leave the docks at Redcar as the first instalment of a 7,000-tonne order.

The beams will be used in the new 7 World Trade Centre - the final original building to collapse in the wake of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.

A further 3,000 tonnes of steel will be shipped across the Atlantic at a later date.

The shipments will make up half the total requirement for the building, which was designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.

The 228-metre-high building will cost $700m (£420m) and is expected to open in late 2005.

Yesterday, the consignment of steel was being loaded on to the docks ready for export.