TDG, which manages Corus UK's road transport operation, admits it has experienced a "significant reduction" in the volume of steel transported over the past few months. This week, the steelmaking giant revealed plans to cut 3,500 jobs worldwide, including about 2,500 at sites across Britain.
Mark Starosolsky, TDG operations director for Corus UK, who oversees TDG's 4PL transport operation at Scunthorpe, says: "The falls in volumes have hurt everyone and we have been working hard to minimise the effect on all of our partners as we endeavour to minimise Corus's logistics costs through this downturn."
TDG manages transport services for 60 Corus production and distribution sites using about 30 separate hauliers.
Before the contract with TDG went live in August 2006, the individual Corus sites bought and managed their transport services separately.
Anne Preston, chairman of Northallerton, North Yorkshire firm Prestons of Potto, one of the hauliers involved in the operation, says: "At the moment we don't know exactly what is going to happen but we are terribly disappointed with this news.
"We can't really comment but we are working really hard so we can come out strong when the economic downturn is over."
David Fox, chairman and managing director at David Fox Transport, based in Middlesbrough, Teesside, adds: "It is too soon to say at the moment what affect this will have on us."
Corus currently employs 24,000 people in the UK and 42,000 across the world. The firm says the restructuring will increase its annual profits by about £200m.