Corus back in action
Discussion
Two years after closure its welcome news that the old Corus steel works is re-opening. British steel is the best steel in the world, bar none. 1200 grateful steel workers are of course 'over the moon'. Start of more heavy industry being brought back to life in the U.K., lets all hope so.
The blast furnace at the former Corus steelworks on Teesside is to be relit over the weekend, owners SSI said.
The move will trigger the return of steelmaking to the Redcar complex, which was mothballed in 2010 with the loss of 1,600 jobs.
Thai-based SSI has taken on more than 1,000 workers - many of whom lost their jobs when previous owners Tata Steel mothballed the site.
The first steel slabs are likely to be produced over the next three days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-17701172
The move will trigger the return of steelmaking to the Redcar complex, which was mothballed in 2010 with the loss of 1,600 jobs.
Thai-based SSI has taken on more than 1,000 workers - many of whom lost their jobs when previous owners Tata Steel mothballed the site.
The first steel slabs are likely to be produced over the next three days.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-17701172
freakybacon said:
We really need a link to this story. Excellent news if its true.
This is the only one i can find that's recent,http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-17701172
Article said:
The blast furnace at the former Corus steelworks on Teesside is to be relit over the weekend, owners SSI said.
Edit, beaten to it.Was due to be opened in dec 2011 but delayed.
THE restart of Tees Valley steelmaking has been postponed by a month after it emerged that more work was needed to prepare the blast furnace.
It is now planned to fire up the furnace at the former Teesside Cast Products in Redcar on January 6. The original target date had been December 8.
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/9356101.SSI_...
THE restart of Tees Valley steelmaking has been postponed by a month after it emerged that more work was needed to prepare the blast furnace.
It is now planned to fire up the furnace at the former Teesside Cast Products in Redcar on January 6. The original target date had been December 8.
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/9356101.SSI_...
Otispunkmeyer said:
Do they still have the Beam Mill and BOS plant going ? or are they coming back on line too?
I thought the idea was that Tata would ship slabs from elsewhere for the TBM (beam mill) to make into I-beams. But that got mothballed as well?
The beam mill never closed,slabs have been produced in SI thought the idea was that Tata would ship slabs from elsewhere for the TBM (beam mill) to make into I-beams. But that got mothballed as well?
horpe and shipped up Mr_B said:
So what's changed from when it had to close, to opening again ? What's made it a viable prospect now ?
There were several articles n the press (telegraph was one) when it closed that Tata were doing so in order to pick up a large sum of money from the EU ( that means us too of course) under the CO2 nonsense. I forget the name of that particular "incentive" but it's something to do with rewarding companies for eliminating CO2 - might have been The Carbon Allowance or something.So what's changed, if that was true , is that Tata received their large payoff, mothballed the plant, then SSI came along and bought it as a going concern - the viable company it always was.
Winners = Tata investors. losers = staff who lost their jobs, their families, NE economy in general ( eg small shop keepers etc), tax payers who forked out for training and re-employing and benefits, tax payers Europe wide who gave a large sum to Tata Steel.
Here's a lead in link if you want to follow it through. Interestingly, the local media never followed up on these stories about the closure being linked to CO2 even when I sent them the links.
http://thegwpf.org/uk-news/242-the-economic-suicid...
Mr_B said:
So what's changed from when it had to close, to opening again ? What's made it a viable prospect now ?
My take on what tata did was use the experience of the workers at redcar, who were known for producing some of the best steel in the world, then use that expertise to build a few plants in India, when the indian plants were up and running the need for Redcar disappear and so was shut.SIS are securing supplies of steel for the growing car industry at home, so they have need for Redcar, my only hope is they do not just do the same as Tata.
Up to 2007 ? the Redcar plant was part of the Long Products Division of Tata
Due to the recession and over capacity it was in danger of closing.
It was then seperated from the LDP and it bacame a stand alone part of Tata
under the name of Teesside Cast Products.
As i understand it TCP was viable due to a contract it signed with a consortium
of companies (4or5) iirc under which they agreed to buy x amount of cast slab PA.
SSI was part of the consortium and iirc TCP's biggest customer.
The consortium later renaged on the contract and this eventually led to the demise of TCP
There was a court case pending where Tata were sueing the consortium,not sure if this ever
happened.
More than likely as has been mentioned earlier Tata were quite happy to take the carbon credits
on offer following the closure of the plant.
As an aside SSI have struggled to re-employ experienced operators from the plant due
to the lower pay and inferior terms and conditions than they enjoyed with Corus/Tata
exactly what i was going to say! SSI were part of a consortium who agreed to take TATA's surplus from TCP and roll it in foreign mills. the consortium reneged on this deal and TCP became unviable. was a big effort to ensure that all the beam mill sections could be rolled to spec. using different size slab from scunny.
i think tata takes far too much st over corus. it had a long reputation of failure, financial loss and redundancy far before he came along. i also think he overpaid massively and was misled in some respects. there were also several synergies that were supposed to result in global savings across TATA, which didn't come about in part due to corus attitudes.
in short, corus is an inflexible beast both in its corporate culture and physical [legacy] rolling mills. relied on strength in home markets for far too long and this is the result.
good news for those in new employment at SSI, but having heard of recent further redundancies at scunny i doubt it's going to be long before they are replaced by fellow steelworkers on the dole queues.
i think tata takes far too much s
t over corus. it had a long reputation of failure, financial loss and redundancy far before he came along. i also think he overpaid massively and was misled in some respects. there were also several synergies that were supposed to result in global savings across TATA, which didn't come about in part due to corus attitudes.in short, corus is an inflexible beast both in its corporate culture and physical [legacy] rolling mills. relied on strength in home markets for far too long and this is the result.
good news for those in new employment at SSI, but having heard of recent further redundancies at scunny i doubt it's going to be long before they are replaced by fellow steelworkers on the dole queues.
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