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Stuart "I spend Fridays in Middlesbrough visiting the sink Estates trouble shooting" Bell
New delay for SSI Redcar steel plant
Dec 21 2011
Mike Hughes, Evening Gazette
STEEL giant SSI has been forced to delay the restart of its Redcar blast furnace for a second time.
The iconic date was originnally going to be December 8 - but that was too tight a deadline and as more remedial work on the blast furnace was identified, the company committed itself to January 6.
But now a combination of bad weather, union action and the ongping enormous workload means the company cannot commit to a new date.
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 blastfurnace, 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”.
The company has always said the recruitment programme was unaffected by the latest change.
Under enormous pressure from Teesside businesses desperate for a surge in the local economy, the deadlines were always going to be tough, with work across such a vast area of plant to be refurbished and checked.
Read More http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teess ... z1hEve9ltH
