THE Government has pledged to support UK steel companies fighting for exemptions from controversial tariffs imposed by the US.

Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt said she believed a number of firms had a strong case and she promised to lobby the US administration "at the highest levels" on their behalf.

Ms Hewitt was meeting union leaders and steel companies yesterday during a visit to the Rotherham factory of Corus, one of the firms seeking exemption.

Corus employs about 3,000 staff on Teesside, producing the raw materials for the engineering steels business in Rotherham and the strip products business in Port Talbot, South Wales.

Both those plants export steel to the US.

Unions fear the imposition of steel tariffs could lead to 18,000 job losses in the European Union, including 5,000 in the UK, and could see the European market flooded by cheap steel from the Far East and Eastern Europe.

The minister said she was ready to add her personal support to any justified application for exemptions.

In March, President George W Bush announced he would be imposing tariffs of up to 30 per cent on imported steel while the US steel industry undergoes a major reorganisation similar to the one in this country last year.

However, the US administration has now indicated it will exempt certain steel products that its domestic industry does not produce, offering hope to a number of UK firms.

Ms Hewitt said: "Having examined requests for exemptions from local companies I am confident they have a strong case and will continue to lobby the US administration on their behalf.

"British steelworkers are among the most efficient and productive in the world and should not be penalised because of the problems the Americans face with their own industry.

"I understand that the US faces problems, but just as our own industry had to go through an often painful restructuring, so must theirs."

The minister repeated her belief that the action taken by the US was "unfair".

She pledged support to UK firms seeking exemption including Corus; Sandvik Metinox, Firth Rixson Special Steels, Unsco, Sheffield all based in Sheffield; JB and S Lees from West Bromwich and its sister firm Firth Cleveland from Tipton, in the West Midlands, as well as Bromford Iron and Steel, West Bromwich.