The rebuild of Blast Furnace no. 4 and more investments in Europe

Tata Steel is dedicated to being its customers' preferred partner by unlocking the potential of steel. To this end, Europe's second largest steel producer is continuing to invest in its assets, despite the economic headwinds.

This year several large-scale capital expenditure projects will take place to maintain technical leadership, make the operations more sustainable and improve the quality and service Tata Steel offers.

In the second half of 2012 Tata Steel will carry out probably the largest investment of the year in UK manufacturing - the185 million pounds sterling (221 million euros) rebuild of the No 4 Blast Furnace at the Port Talbot plant in South Wales. The project will leave Port Talbot with two state-of-the-art furnaces and raise iron making capacity. An additional 53 million pounds sterling (63 million euros) project to install equipment to recycle and reuse process gases from the steel making plant will produce another significant contribution to the energy self-sufficiency and sustainability of the Welsh steel industry.

Technology & sustainability

Investments to capture and recycle process gases have also been launched elsewhere at Port Talbot. A 60 million pounds sterling (72 million euros) project to reuse Blast Furnace off-gas was completed and put into operation in 2010, while a project to recover waste heat from the Continuous Annealing Process Line will be put into effect later this year.

Improvement programme

Towards the end of last year the company initiated a major improvement programme at the IJmuiden works in the Netherlands. Over five years a total of around 800 million euros (670 million pounds sterling) is to be spent on hundreds of improvement projects. As well as increasing the efficiency of the production processes, the programme aims at further enhancing product quality. The world-class IJmuiden site will have its capacity increased in order to take full advantage of its ideal location on the coast, close to Europe's manufacturing heartland.

Tata Steel is determined to continue to innovate, both through its own research activities and through collaborations with third parties, including customers. The company's understanding of high-temperature technologies, for example, will be enhanced through the new national research facility being set up at the Teesside Technology Centre in conjunction with the Centre for Process Innovation. The new hot strip leveller at Tata Steels service centre in Dudley in the UK's West Midlands is also due to start up this February.

We may be living in uncertain times, but investment and innovation to further improve product quality, process efficiency and quality of service will remain priorities at Tata Steel.