Corus investment at Teesside Cast Products Roger Worsley Corus has announced investment of £12 million at Teesside Cast Products, the first phase of the US$100million investment programme, and part of the ten-year offtake agreement announced last December Corus has announced an investment of £12 million at Teesside Cast Products (TCP), the first phase of the US$100million investment programme, aimed at securing international competitiveness as part of the ten-year offtake agreement announced in December 2004.This investment is targeted at enhancing product quality to meet the specific requirements of the TCP's consortium members and will also focus on improving efficiency to support the production of a competitive product.

There are a number of projects in both the Steelmaking and Ironmaking operations with the most significant projects at the Redcar Blast Furnace and the Continuous Casting plant. These projects will be carried out during 2005 and 2006.

Teesside Cast Products is an integrated steelmaking facility, which currently manufactures around 3.3 million tonnes a year of slab and bloom across a wide range of specifications and applications.Corus has a 10-year off-take agreement in place to supply slab from TCP to a consortium of re-rolling companies, namely Duferco, Marcegaglia, Dongkuk and Imsa.

Under the agreement effective 2 January 2005, the consortium will take at cost, slab produced at TCP that is surplus to Corus' internal requirements in 2005 and 2006 and approximately 78% of output thereafter.As consideration, Corus will receive US$157m (approximately £82m), comprising a US$73m upfront payment in 2005/06 with a further US$84m in deferred payments over the life of the contract.

In addition, the consortium members will contribute approximately 76% of the expected capital expenditure requirements of TCP to enable identifiable improvements to be implemented.Corus Group Plc is one of the world's largest metal producers with a turnover of over £9 billion and major operating facilities in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway, Belgium and Canada.

Corus' four divisions comprise Strip Products, Long Products, Aluminium and Distribution & Building Systems. Corus has over 48,000 employees in over 40 countries and sales offices and service centres worldwide.