THOUSANDS of workers are facing the prospect of a bleak New Year amid claims Corus is preparing to axe its North-East crude-steel plant.

Last month, the company sent redundancy notices to 1,200 workers at Teesside and Scunthorpe, of which 200 are compulsory.

Employees are now braced for more bad news next month. Unions fear chairman Sir Brian Moffat is preparing to reveal more cuts than had been expected.

Sources close to the company claimed yesterday that Corus has drawn up radical restructuring plans for its loss-making carbon steel division.

Analysts believe this will mean closure of the sites on Teesside, Llanwern, in South Wales, and Dalzell, near Glasgow, with the loss of a further 8,000 to 10,000 jobs.

It is believed the Teesside and Llanwern plants, which are both crude-steel production plants, will account for 7,000 job losses alone.

Production would be transferred to plants in Eastern Europe.

Sir Brian is expected to blame the continued strength of the pound for the devastating cuts.

Last February, The Northern Echo revealed the company's plans to transfer production to two huge factories in Poland.

Eddie Lynch, assistant general secretary of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, said: "These are leading-edge factories. Corus has only just paid £35m to refit the Teesside site, which will make it difficult to justify closure to shareholders."

If the leaks are true, the move would deal a devastating blow to the North-East's beleaguered manufacturing industry.

Steel-making has been a major employer on Teesside for decades. In 1972, British Steel employed nearly 18,000, but since then the price for greater productivity has been fewer jobs.

Since British Steel merged with Dutch giant Hoogovens to form Corus, the workforce has fallen to fewer than 5,000.

While union leaders fear that Corus managers are considering entering into a joint venture with a Polish plant to produce steel, the group is adamant such a move is not a part of its plans.

The various moves, when added to the 4,500 job cuts already announced last summer, will mean that Corus will eventually shed more than two-thirds of its British workforce.

Steel unions have warned Sir Brian that he will face industrial action if he closes any more steel works.

Only recently, the ISTC union leaders had talks with him.

He was asked to rethink the plans over the Christmas period, before the two sides meet again next Monday.

Nobody from Corus was available for comment last night