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ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » The sad demise of the Corus steelmaking plant in Redcar has highlighted - in big, bold letters - the mammoth task facing Britain's manufacturers.
With the country still rooted in the bowels of recession, the message is clear: widget-makers have to innovate to survive.
The troubles of the Teesside Cast Products (TCP) plant stemmed from a classic case of having all the eggs in one basket. When that basket broke after an Italian-led consortium pulled out of a long-term contract, the skilled workforce had to re-build the order book virtually from scratch.
Despite a heroic effort, the plug was finally pulled after TCP was single-handedly responsible for more than a third of losses generated by the European steelmaking division of Indian parent Tata.
In hindsight, the writing was on the wall months earlier after the consortium that had signed a 10-year deal with TCP in 2004 walked out on the agreement.
Any company which depends on one source is putting itself at risk and while the global steelmaking slump hasn't helped Corus, there is a feeling that the situation may have been averted had the company acted sooner to secure work outside of the consortium.
Others have prospered from diversifying their business.
More than half (53%) of respondents to a Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) survey said they had braved the worst of the recession by creating new products and services, while 51% intend to keep innovating next year.
Locally, Hartlepool engineering giant Heerema recently secured 1,000 jobs by extending its reach in the burgeoning green energy market, winning a major contract to build two substation platforms for the Sheringham Shoal wind farm off the Norfolk coast.
What Corus would give for a similar order to secure the future of 1,700 highly skilled workers who have been given the worst possible early Christmas present.
With niche technical and engineering skills required for the production of much-needed green energy, it shouldn't be long before these workers find a new vocation.
That's of little consolation to them right now though, as another shaft of Teesside's proud steel-making industry melts away.
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