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Stuart Nathan
Features editor
Steel relighting is a welcome beacon of good news
It’s part of the nature of journalism that bad news happens more often than good. Unexpected events, breakdowns, natural disasters hit the headlines, while things operating as normal tend to escape attention. So it’s great for us to be able to report an unequivocal piece of good news in the relighting of the blast furnace at Redcar Steelworks, under its new owners, Thai firm Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), after two years out of action.
There are several dimensions to the restart. It takes in the continuation of a 160-year history of steelmaking in Redcar; the saving of over 1600 jobs; the investment into a financially-deprived region. But not least of them is the sheer scale of the project.
When former owners Corus mothballed the furnace in early 2010, it was thought unlikely that it would ever re-open. We reported on it as the latest chapter in the sad story of the decline of British steelmaking, and speculated on whether there might be opportunities for its former employees in offshore renewables, and what plant closures like this meant for the UK’s much-discussed engineering skills gap.
With the purchase of the plant by SSI, a market for its steel — the lack of which led to its mothballing — was secured, and the work to restore the furnace began. Europe’s second-largest blast furnace is almost as tall as St Paul’s Cathedral, with a hearth 14m across, and following its closure its pipes were clogged with debris. This had to be cleared and the furnace relined — a process which can take years, but which the Redcar workforce completed in nine months. The furnace then had to be pre-heated with for gas stoves for two months to achieve a temperature of 1200°C inside the hearth, before being reignited with a gas flame. According to tradition, this is lit from the hearth of an operating furnace — a task completed by the 11-year-old son of local union leader and campaigner Geoff Waterfield, who died last August.
So were we, and other observers, premature in assuming that British steelworking was dying? With the relighting at Redcar and Tata’s announcement of £800m of investment in Welsh steelworks, it looks like we were. Part of the pessimism was because the main markets for the steel, in Southeast Asia, were so far away from the UK; but it seems that factor is not so important to SSI and Tata. The existing facilities and experienced workforces in Britain must be important — despite the high cost of renovating and restarting furnaces, it’s still cheaper than building one and staffing it from scratch. And SSI has said that it might even expand Redcar, if demand improves.
Increasing automation in steelmaking means that it will never employ as many people as it did in the 1960s and 1970s. But demand for steel is high and will remain so, as economic growth in Asia continues, new buildings and cities go up, and newly-prosperous people look to buy cars and white goods. Are there even more opportunities for the original home of steelmaking? If the UK can produce high-quality material efficiently and cost-effectively — and SSI and Tata certainly think that it can — then why not? Hopefully, there will be more good news for us to report in the coming years.
Readers' comments (10)
Galathumpian | 18 Apr 2012 10:33 am
I have already commented at some length on a similar article on the potential of this works being successful, so I will not repeat them here.
There are many detailed inaccuracies in this article, but they merely serve to illustrate the lack of understanding in those who are responsible for the recording of these events, important though they are.
I wish I could join in the celebrations, but prefer to take a more realistic view of the situation concerning the Redcar works.
It is routine for blast furnaces to be rebuilt at the end of campaigns. What makes this a little more interesting is that it MAY not have been blown down properly when it was “mothballed” by Tata, and that the ancillary supporting facilities have to be re-commissioned as well, and some of these are major pieces of equipment in their own right. I refer to the burden preparation, power station, oxygen plant, steel making and casting and a host of other supporting services of which little has been heard, but are equally important.
The main reason for there being less people employed is less to do with automation, but more to do with the contracting out of services to external contractors, continuing the trend started by Corus/Tata,
The statement that the relining of a blast furnace can take years is frankly ridiculous. It is a routine operation carried out regularly. Whole new works, with much more facilities, are started up from scratch in areas where there is no history of steelmaking at all, and in less time, with inexperienced labour.
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Anonymous | 18 Apr 2012 12:56 pm
Fantastic news. Hope it carries on. Some of the quality of imported steels is dodgy, bordering (at least) on the fraudulent, so if anyone else has been bitten this way, they may be able to get their purchasing managers beating a path to the good quality British made steel.
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Anonymous | 18 Apr 2012 1:11 pm
Without in the least belittling the employment benefits, which are great for the region, this isn't so much a resurgence of 'British steelmaking', but rather of 'steelmaking in Britain'. Still good, but not as good as it could have been.
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allyn boyes | 18 Apr 2012 1:36 pm
Its great news and much needed boost to the area. Whole families including mine lived and worked around the steel and iron works of Cargo Fleet, Dorman long and I worked for Davy McKee who built Redcar's new blast furnace in the first place for British steel. I can confirm that the re lining of a blast furnace and one as big as Redcar would easily take 9 months if not more. Ravenscraig took at least that when I was there. In the days of British steel productivity was pretty poor and I am sure with the new owners it will be significantly better not just due to automation but also better processes and the real hunger of the workforce.
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Anonymous | 18 Apr 2012 2:50 pm
This country is slowly but surely bringing itself back into play, and engineers are making it happen. Best wishes and congratulations to all at Redcar and Britains other steel making facilities. Its a long road but Britain is going to become the best place for innovative engineering and high quality manufacturing in the world. We already are in some sectors, but areas we had thought were long since abandoned too will come back too.
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Philip Baker | 18 Apr 2012 2:56 pm
Congratulations to The Engineer, where the real issues affecting manufacturing and technology are aired by knowledgeable engineers.
We may not like what Galathumpian reports, but its typical of how economic factors dominate decisions when major investment is required
The real concern, is when strategic issues impinge, as they usually do on these large projects.
Quite clearly we need to produce steel in the UK, and we must ensure that we do not become dependant on imports, for this basic material, as we have done with energy and computing.
When finance is the dominant factor and strategic necessity is the dominant issue, then the tax payer is better off supporting those projects, and retaining the jobs and technology skills that will protect the UK, from the Multi National self interests, that continue to denude of our industrial assets.
It will be the tax payer, who foots the bill for urgently need next phase of strategic nuclear power generation.
The private companies cannot be trusted to recycle their profits from energy trading, which further exposes the hog wash often implied as a benifit of free trading markets.
Free trade decisions are expensive for the tax payer when strategic issues dominate.
We cannot trust Private enterprise to dip into its pockets and wait for their long term profit, and that's why SSI should be commended rather than ridiculed, despite the realities of the finance issues.
Nationalisation of essential services and some strategic supply industries, brought us both economic value and security.
Today the UK is becoming more exposed to our Multinational trading vultures.
As they posture responsibility and yet have no more loyalty to a country than its next profit margin.
Thank you SSI.
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S. S. Sagoo | 18 Apr 2012 8:47 pm
This is good news for the country and for the jobless. It is good if more things and goods are produced in the UK rather than buy from other countries. I remember when people used to look at the label '' Made in England '' I hope it continues and we make high quality products to beat others
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Mike Bradley | 19 Apr 2012 9:45 am
It is good to see this milestone.
But what I find frustrating is that nowadays it always takes foreign companies to make the investment risk, to make a success of british manufacturing. Look at Land Rover in Coventry, Nissan in Sunderland, Mini in Cowley, SABIC building new polyethylene production at Wilton, now SSI at Redcar, and all the ex-ICI companies that are now foreign owned and have made big investments in the UK - the list is endless.
Why is it that UK companies don't have the foresight, drive or risk-taking initiative to make these investments? Why does it take foreign money and initiative to make a success of UK manufacturing? And should we be concerned about this?
Well done SSI, but another black mark against UK industrial and financial leadership
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Galathumpian | 19 Apr 2012 10:46 am
The answer is simple. This country is "managed" by accountants, and has been for decades, who don't understand the difference between funds and wealth.
And this thinking has affected many engineers, who have followed the funds.
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Galathumpian | 19 Apr 2012 11:02 am
Of course we should be concerned, and at last some are. We have to re-learn how to pay our way in the World, which we are not doing.
But there seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding about the role in this being played by SSI. This is hardly manufacturing to be compared even with companies like Honda and the others mentioned. It is producing a crude semi finished slab for others to use and add value to.
For decades we have been preaching that it is the job of the "Third World" to produce basic raw materials, particularly semi-steel products such as slabs, billets, and blooms, so that the more advanced economies can make finished manufactured goods from them.
This "new" project on Teesside reverses this thinking.
Welcome to the "Third World".
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