A new £1 million steel facility that will create 28 jobs in South Wales is now fully operational.

Caledan (www.caledan.co.uk) – a cold-rolling mill supplying steel frame sections to the construction industry – is backed by £134,000 of Welsh government funding, and the company has already signed contracts with UK firms to distribute its products.

Managing director Chris Morton said: “We believe that our products will fill a gap in the local market and allow companies in Wales to access steel frame sections quickly and easily from our base in Hengoed, near Caerphilly.

At the same time, the quality and expertise that we provide means that companies with nation-wide reach are approaching us too.”

The mill produces two kinds of steel frame sections — ‘stud and track’ and Primaframe. ‘Stud and track’ is used by the construction industry to provide support in primary structures; the Caledan mill can produce 20,000m (12.5 miles) of it in a single 8hr shift.

Primaframe uses light gauge steel to provide the load-bearing structural frames for a building. It is suitable for modular construction, house building and other multi-storey applications.