Saturday, 20 Feb 2010
A proud chapter of UK industrial history is coming to an end later as the last steel making furnace on Teesside is turned off after working continuously for 150 years.

Steelmaker Corus is starting the mothballing of a huge plant, resulting in the loss of up to 1,600 jobs and potential industrial action.

Mr John Bolton MD of TCP told the BBC “It's a very sad day today. We have known about the potential of this happening since May.”

He said “I'm very proud of the people here because they've had to live with this hanging over them.”

He added that “Everybody here has done everything they can to keep this plant going.”

Corus is blaming the mothballing on an international consortium, which it said pulled out of a contract halfway through a 10 year