THE restart of Tees Valley steelmaking has been postponed by a month after it emerged that more work was needed to prepare the blast furnace.

It is now planned to fire up the furnace at the former Teesside Cast Products in Redcar on January 6. The original target date had been December 8.

Sahaviriya Steel Industries(SSI) UK announced this morning that, following the completion of the inspection of the plant in Redcar, some additional remedial work on the blast furnace had been identified.

The recruitment programme continues and is unaffected by the change of date.

Phil Dryden, Chief Executive of SSI UK said: "The major workload associated with the restart project is reviewed on a regular basis, and whilst we are disappointed at not being able to meet our previous target date of December 8, the important priority is that we complete all of the necessary work to ensure a successful start-up.

"I am aware of and appreciate very much the huge level of public interest and support shown to us,and I am sure we will all be looking forward to a successful start up of operations in the new year”