Tata develops its UK lifting steel business
13 December 2012Indian steel making company, Tata Steel, has announced initiatives that will provide long term advances to its clients in the lifting and excavating sectors in the UK.
The relighting of Blast Furnace No. 4 (BF4) at Port Talbot, a new high tensile, heavy gauge decoiler in Llanwern, South Wales, and the investment into hi-tech engineering bar products at its Rotherham, South Yorkshire, facility means that the company is expected to be better equipped to deal with the challenges of the market.
The project to rebuild BF4 in Port Talbot started in July this year, and requires the installation of a steel plant gas cooling system. The project will in turn lead to the restart of the Hot Strip Mill at the Llanwern site, which will feature improvements in health and safety, environmental care and operational efficiency, the company said.
Tata Steel said it was committed to manufacturing in the UK. "This development is part of a strategy to transform ourselves into an 'all-weather' steel producer, capable of succeeding in even the worst economic storms," said Gareth Beese, Tata Steel's sales and marketing director for Lifting and Excavating. "For equipment makers, these investments are very good news; the new profiling centre at Steelpark will allow us to provide more of the high quality profiled steel products that our customers demand whilst the new Llanwern decoiler encompasses the very latest design technology and will enable us to provide flatness-critical steel sheet to OEMs."
