News: Liberty Steel to boost production at Rotherham
Liberty Steel has announced that it is investing further in its Rotherham site to boost production to over one million tonnes per annum.
Liberty Steel Group UK (LSUK) is reaffirming its commitment to the UK as it sets out the next phase of its GREENSTEEL strategy with investment programmes focussed on an evolving market demand and gaps in the domestic supply chain.
LSUK has made substantial investments in the Rotherham steel operations it acquired three years ago from Tata Steel, when the business was producing just 225,000 tonnes per annum. In 2018, HRH Prince Charles switched on the second Electric Arc Furnace, the "N Furnace" at Aldwarke. Various upgrades to the plant has enabled the business to more than double production at Rotherham to over 500,000 tonnes per annum.
LSUK today announces that it will further boost production at Rotherham to over 1mtpa through investments to expand its product mix and making more productive use of its rolling mills to target attractive market segments.
Sanjeev Gupta, group executive chairman at Liberty Steel, said: "It has been three years since we acquired the business from Tata Steel and expanded steelmaking at Rotherham under our GREENSTEEL vision for the UK. Since then we’ve made vital upgrades to the plant, doubling production, and returned the business to profitability before it was affected by a Brexit impacted weak steel market in 2019 which has been followed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"As we make plans for a post-pandemic economy, we have challenged ourselves to think differently across our product mix, assets and cost base to improve competitiveness and prepare for a new future. With the new developments at Thrybergh Bar Mill the business is well prepared to win a greater share of the construction market in the UK with a competitive GREENSTEEL rebar offering for projects such as HS2 which will lead to a significant boost in production at Rotherham."
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Roy Rickhuss CBE, general secretary of Community union, added: "At a challenging time for our steel industry LIBERTY reaffirming their commitment to the UK, while setting out an ambitious plan for the future, is extremely welcome. There is no doubt that steel will be vital to rebuilding and rebooting our economy and steel companies must be ready for the opportunities that will come. It is hugely encouraging that LIBERTY are investing so they can contribute to essential infrastructure projects like HS2 that will drive the recovery and create jobs. Community firmly believes LIBERTY’s strategy to displace steel imports is the right one, but we need government to support this by using procurement policy to ensure our domestic infrastructure is built with our own steel."
LSUK is extending the product range of its Thrybergh Bar Mill at Rotherham to include the production of construction rebar from September 2020. There are also plans to add capability to produce wire rod to feed both engineering and construction markets.
Under plans announced across GFG Alliance (which owns Liberty) to achieve 20-30% efficiency gains, LSUK is continuing with its turnaround plans at its Stocksbridge site which produces high value steels for demanding applications such as the aerospace industry.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand from steel consuming sectors in certain regions has dropped by between 20% and 40%. Liberty has been looking at "efficiency gains" including redundancies.
Liberty Steel website
Images: Liberty Steel
Liberty Steel Group UK (LSUK) is reaffirming its commitment to the UK as it sets out the next phase of its GREENSTEEL strategy with investment programmes focussed on an evolving market demand and gaps in the domestic supply chain.
LSUK has made substantial investments in the Rotherham steel operations it acquired three years ago from Tata Steel, when the business was producing just 225,000 tonnes per annum. In 2018, HRH Prince Charles switched on the second Electric Arc Furnace, the "N Furnace" at Aldwarke. Various upgrades to the plant has enabled the business to more than double production at Rotherham to over 500,000 tonnes per annum.
LSUK today announces that it will further boost production at Rotherham to over 1mtpa through investments to expand its product mix and making more productive use of its rolling mills to target attractive market segments.
Sanjeev Gupta, group executive chairman at Liberty Steel, said: "It has been three years since we acquired the business from Tata Steel and expanded steelmaking at Rotherham under our GREENSTEEL vision for the UK. Since then we’ve made vital upgrades to the plant, doubling production, and returned the business to profitability before it was affected by a Brexit impacted weak steel market in 2019 which has been followed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"As we make plans for a post-pandemic economy, we have challenged ourselves to think differently across our product mix, assets and cost base to improve competitiveness and prepare for a new future. With the new developments at Thrybergh Bar Mill the business is well prepared to win a greater share of the construction market in the UK with a competitive GREENSTEEL rebar offering for projects such as HS2 which will lead to a significant boost in production at Rotherham."
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Roy Rickhuss CBE, general secretary of Community union, added: "At a challenging time for our steel industry LIBERTY reaffirming their commitment to the UK, while setting out an ambitious plan for the future, is extremely welcome. There is no doubt that steel will be vital to rebuilding and rebooting our economy and steel companies must be ready for the opportunities that will come. It is hugely encouraging that LIBERTY are investing so they can contribute to essential infrastructure projects like HS2 that will drive the recovery and create jobs. Community firmly believes LIBERTY’s strategy to displace steel imports is the right one, but we need government to support this by using procurement policy to ensure our domestic infrastructure is built with our own steel."
LSUK is extending the product range of its Thrybergh Bar Mill at Rotherham to include the production of construction rebar from September 2020. There are also plans to add capability to produce wire rod to feed both engineering and construction markets.
Under plans announced across GFG Alliance (which owns Liberty) to achieve 20-30% efficiency gains, LSUK is continuing with its turnaround plans at its Stocksbridge site which produces high value steels for demanding applications such as the aerospace industry.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand from steel consuming sectors in certain regions has dropped by between 20% and 40%. Liberty has been looking at "efficiency gains" including redundancies.
Liberty Steel website
Images: Liberty Steel
1 comments:
we cant wait to see how they are going to move forward were sick of running out of alloys electrodes scrap ppe the list goes on suppliers refuse to give us stock as they dont get paid today we just found out all the agency workers are finished and theres more losses come august they are an utter joke of a company the management team are an embarrassment no one at any level have the slightest idea what a melting shop is let alone how to run it
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