A steel plant which has been battered for the last year has been sold to a firm from Thailand, increasing the prospect of hundreds of new jobs.

The biggest steel maker of Thailand named SSI settled an agreement to buy the Corus Teesside Cast Products site in Redcar.

Unions as well as local politicians greeted the new announcement from SSI and Tata, which is the owner of the Corus steel company in the UK.

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary stated that the deal would help to secure seven hundred jobs at the plant.

He further stated that this deal is very good news for workers at the Teesside plant and the region. He welcomed the return of steelmaking to this historic steel site later this year.

Both parties have tried hard since the month of August to come to a successful result on what has been a complex negotiation. This is an important inward investment by SSI which will help to sustain the seven hundred jobs at the plant and create new ones at the site and the broader local economy.

Paul Reuter, the Unite national officer stated that he is delighted for this deal to have materialized and it's a proof to the determination of the workforce to save the plant.

The successful sale is the outcome of the unions, Tata, SSI and the local community working together.

Under the deal the business got a value of four hundred and sixty nine million dollars or two hundred and ninety one million pounds. The take over is expected to lead to the creation of more than eight hundred jobs on top of the existing workforce of seven hundred at the steel plant, which will return into full operation.

The news comes a year after the plant was mothballed in the month of February 2010.