Engineering news
Plans to restart production at one of the country's biggest steel plants, in Redcar, have been delayed because of a number of problems including industrial action.
Thailand's SSI had been due to resume production at the mothballed Teesside Cast Products site on 6 January after buying the plant in a multimillion-pound deal.
But the firm announced that, due to work still to be completed on the blast furnace, it will not be possible to restart the iron and steel-making operations on time.
The delay is due to several factors including unfavourable weather conditions, industrial action in the construction and engineering industry and additional unplanned work.
SSI said every effort was being made to minimise the delay and restart the plant as early as possible in the new year.
Phil Dryden, chief executive of SSI UK, said: "Following a review of the restart programme, I wanted to give this update at the earliest opportunity.
"We are disappointed that we have not met our target date for completing the work at the blast furnace but, as I have emphasised before, we set ourselves a challenging target and did not build any flex or margin into the programme to cater for the issues which have brought about this delay.
"On a positive note, the rest of the elements of the restart programme are on target including work on all the other parts of the manufacturing assets, the recruitment programme and the procurement of raw materials.
"I appreciate very much the support shown to us, and I remain confident that we will have a successful start up to the operations in the new year."