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Jun 16 2009 by Peter McCusker, The Journal
MP's frustration over Corus sale
REDCAR MP Vera Baird has delivered a broadside to companies involved in talks to save the Corus steel plant.
The MP, who brokered a re-opening of negotiations between the UK firm and the four international buyers who tipped Teesside Cast Products into meltdown, is understood to have become increasingly frustrated at the entrenched position adopted by both camps. In a statement, she said taking up “tactical negotiating positions” only worsened the worry for the 2,000 families who are waiting to hear the outcome of jobs talks, due to end in August.
Meanwhile, the TCP team has managed to secure sufficient orders to keep the plant in operation after the buyers walked out on an offtake agreement without warning in April.
The Consortium, which has been threatened with legal action by Corus, remained stubbornly silent for weeks. But a series of statements over the last few days has been variously interpreted as a genuine attempt to reopen negotiations or, more cynically, a last-minute bid to restore the buyers’ reputation on the world steel stage. Corus, which refuses to budge on the question of litigation believes it has the moral high ground. A spokesman for the consortium said: “This is not in any way a question of a tactical negotiating position. This comes down to whether Corus is looking for a legal or for a commercial solution.”
Meanwhile, Corus has dismissed as an empty gesture yesterday’s announcement that two of the consortium members - Italian Marcegaglia and South Korean Dongkuk - who made a bid to buy TCP in February, would release the company from a gagging clause, which prevented it from talking to any other potential buyer while a memorandum of understanding was still in place. That MOU runs out in just two weeks.
