Tata Steel has announced a series of planned investments for its Port Talbot integrated steel mill in South Wales, to strengthen the plant’s reliability and enable it to develop and produce high-performance steels (www.tatasteeleurope.com).

According to Tata Steel, the £30 million project will help to meet the emerging need for next-generation steels for hybrid and electric cars, as well as for energy-efficient homes and buildings — and innovative food packaging.

Earlier, this year the company unveiled a robotic steel-welding line for its Wednesfield production facility in the West Midlands, which supplies material for car makers. N

ext up is a 500-tonne Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) vessel for the Port Talbot site. The company is also replacing the massive cranes in the steelworks and installing enhanced dust extraction hoods.

Bimlendra Jha, Tata Steel UK CEO, said: “These investments will help us to increase our reliability and demonstrate our commitment to the longer-term future of steel-making in the UK. We are also investing in our capability to produce new higher-strength steels in the UK.”

He added that Tata has taken on almost 100 new apprentices and graduates and is getting training support from the Government.

Port Talbot produces high-quality steel, which is further processed at Tata’s steel mills around the UK for manufacturers in Britain, mainland Europe and other countries world-wide.

The new BOS vessel will be able to convert 330 tonnes of iron into steel in each cycle. This is done by pumping oxygen through liquid iron at twice the speed of sound, removing unwanted carbon.