London, Dec 4 (IANS) Corus, the European arm of Tata Steel, said Friday it will cut 1,700 jobs and partially close a plant in Britain’s Teesside region in the new year.
The decision by the Anglo-Dutch company follows the failure of four international buyers to purchase 80 percent of the Teesside Cast Products plant’s production for 10 years.

The facility will close by the end of January. The job losses are 600 fewer than previously feared, and Corus will continue to employ about 2,000 people at its other operations in the Teesside area of northeast England.

Corus Chief Executive Kirby Adams said: “This is the last thing we wanted and we feel deeply about what is happening. Sadly, it has become unavoidable, through no fault of our people on Teesside.”

The losses come on top of 2,500 jobs that Corus had already shed this year as demand fell because of the global recession.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, Britain’s biggest union, said: “This is a dark day for British manufacturing. Unite will do everything possible to prevent this closure from going ahead. The government must now act to save Teesside as decisively as it acted to save the banks last year.”