STEEL company Corus is advertising for recruits in the same week as more than 230 of its workers are losing their jobs.

The firm is publicising manufacturing and engineering vacancies at its Skinningrove plant, in east Cleveland, while the Lackenby coil plate mill, on Teesside, is to close on Friday.

Union leaders have spent weeks wrangling to save jobs in the coil plate mill.

In March, the steel giant announced it would be axing 6,000 jobs across the country, including 1,100 on Teesside.

Union leaders tried in vain to save the coil plate mill, but they were unsuccessful and the 35-year-old mill will stop rolling later this week.

Under an agreement struck between the company and the unions as a result of the shake-up, Corus agreed to move workers into other areas of the business.

A plea went out across the Teesside works for employees who were nearing retirement age to volunteer for redundancy, to give younger staff in the coil plate mill a chance of staying with the company.

Tony Poynter, chairman of the multi-union steel committee on Teesside, said yesterday: "There are a number of people who have been transferred to Skinningrove. Some are going to Scunthorpe, and Sheffield, and other people are going to other plants in the Teesside works.

"Many have volunteered to retire, and some of the younger men have decided to go and find jobs outside and concentrate their futures in another industry.

"These new jobs are for particular craft skills and not for the ordinary run-of-the-mill product worker.

"The company has been putting more effort in. It has taken a long while to concentrate their minds, but they are trying and their attitude has changed a bit in the past few weeks, and they are working more closely with us."

A spokesman for Corus said: "Corus has made it plain that the company's long-term strategy is to recapture and maintain a competitive position as a leading international metals company.

"Part of that strategy requires an equally long-term view about continuing to employ people of the right calibre, and with the right balance of ability and skills.

"Consequently, from time to time, we need to recruit people from outside the company."

Read about The Northern Echo's campaign for steel jobs here.