STEELMAKING on Teesside was delivered its final blow yesterday, as the fires in the ovens at SSI’s Redcar works were put out.

The decision, announced by official receiver Ken Beasley, ended any prospect of work at the plant restarting.

Shedding crocodile tears yesterday, Business Minister Anna Soubry said: “This news is very, very disappointing and my thoughts are with the workers and their families.”

A coal stockpile at the plant cannot be used to keep the furnaces going because the Thai owners of the plant cannot pay for it.

The plant employs 1,700 workers directly and around 1,000 contractors, while thousands of others in associated industries depend on it for their livelihoods.

Mr Beasley said: “There is no realistic prospect of a buyer being found and the priority now is to close the ovens down safely.”

But Unite Yorkshire and Northern secretary Karen Reay was furious at government inaction.

“I am absolutely devastated about this,” she said. “I was born and brought up next door in Middlesbrough. The whole of the district has been built on the steel industry.

“The iron ore was mined in the surrounding hills. All around the area there were steel mills.

“The government had a choice and they chose not to help the people of Teesside.

“It is not just the people who work at SSI. It is all the others who depend on it — the supply chain, transport. It is totally devastating.”

Steel union Community general secretary Roy Rickhuss called for the plant to be taken into temporary public ownership to “protect and preserve these vital industrial assets.

“Keeping the coke ovens running and mothballing the blast furnace effectively would give Teesside steel the chance of a future,” he said.

Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald blasted the “act of breathtaking industrial vandalism.”

The Labour MP accused the government of being “asleep at the wheel” for failing to act on clear signs that the British steel industry was heading into trouble.

Accusing ministers of hiding behind European state aid rules, Mr McDonald asked: “What ever happened to the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ or the ‘March of the Makers’?”

“Redcar Blast furnace is a strategically important national asset. If we as a nation don’t produce steel our manufacturing base is completely undermined.”