Partner Article

Price rises bring hope to Teesside

Impending rises in steel prices could offer a brighter future for the TCP Corus plant on Teesside, according to Redcar MP Vera Baird.

Reports in the financial press yesterday forecast that global steel prices are set to rise by up to a third,

Ms Baird said: “This is due to a big rearrangement in the iron ore pricing system. It will boost international mining profits and may make ore prices more volatile since the price will relate to the spot market price which is usually high.

“However, a steel price increase overall may help TCP to appear competitive, in particular if any buyer for the plant has good established contacts in ore mining or owns mines.

“Buying quarterly, linked to a spot market ore price, may be more volatile, perhaps less helpful to us since, presumably, Corus would prefer some price stability, both for sale and raw material buying before demothbaling the blast furnace.”

Steel prices reached a low of US$380 in 2009, but that at the end of March 2010 it was US$650 and the forecast price to the end of the second quarter of 2010 will be US$750.

Ms Baird said: “It seems therefore more imperative than ever before that the skills of the steelworkers of Teesside are kept together and I now urge Tata Corus in the light of this news today to stop future redundancies in the expectation that it might become viable for them to start the plant again soon, irrespective of a new buyer being found.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .