TROUBLED steel giant Corus today said it was cutting another 1,150 jobs as part of its latest round of restructuring.

Corus plans to focus steelmaking on three sites at Port Talbot, Scunthorpe and Rotherham as its looks to drag itself out of the red.

However, the company said it would endeavour to keep open its major steel making plant at Teesside by refocusing work on other areas.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Amicus said: "UK steelworkers are again being asked to pay the price for the failure of Corus management.

"We will fight the Stocksbridge closure because these jobs, once lost, will never be recovered.

"UK steel production and productivity have risen together with demand and profitability of UK plants."

Failed

A spokesman for the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation said: "We don't think these decisions should be taken by the company's failed management.

"The new chief executive will lose credibility before he has even started his job - he should be looking at things with a fresh pair of eyes."

The company said mainstream steel production would no longer be required at Teesside but that it would attempt to safeguard 2,200 jobs there by developing specialist operations serving international markets.

But the plans will still see the closure of steelmaking and hot rolling work at Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire and the relocation of finishing facilities at Tipton, West Midlands to Rotherham.

The company, which employs around 25,000 workers in the UK, warned earlier this year that it would cut jobs after operating losses in 2002 rose to £393m.