£14m investment to increase steel plant systems’ efficiency
MORE than £14m is to be invested in Port Talbot steelworks. The investment into the hot strip mill at the works will help Tata Steel make more high-value steel for its customers.
A transfer bar cooling system has also been installed, which will increase the annual capacity of the site by around 5% and will ensure that steel can be quickly brought to the exact temperature required for the final product before it is rolled.
The volume capacity of the hot strip mill will now increase to more than 150,000 tonnes per annum.
Mark Davies, works manager, hotrolled products, explained why the cooling system was needed.
“The system is designed to cool steel to very specific temperatures, depending on what it is to be used for, rather than waiting for it to cool naturally,” he said.
“This fine temperature control also allows us to more tightly control the mechanical properties and surface quality of steel used in specific and demanding applications.”
The upgrade is just one part of a series of investments to the company’s European operations, with the hopes of strengthening the business in a bid to meeting the need for nextgeneration steels for hybrid and electric cars, as well as for energyefficient homes, buildings, and food packaging.
In November around £30m worth of investments, which included the replacement of a basic oxygen steelmaking vessel – weighing 500 tonnes – at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot site was announced, as well as plans to replace cranes in the steel plants and install enhanced dust extraction hoods and energy-efficient drives to minimise emissions.
Jon Ferriman, Tata Steel’s director of strip products UK, said: “This investment has created a stronger, more efficient and more reliable platform from which we can meet the needs of our customers.
“We took the opportunity of a planned maintenance shutdown to upgrade several plant areas to further improve production of high-value steels and their delivery to customers.”