British Steel unveils £26m investment project at Teesside plant
British Steel has announced the single largest investment for more than 30 years in its Special Profiles business. The project, which starts this year and is expected to be completed by August 2023, will create work for a range of contractors.
The project will see new downstream processing facilities constructed at the company’s Skinningrove site in North Yorkshire and forms part of a wider £100 million (€116 million) investment this year by British Steel’s Chinese owners, Jingye Group, to improve its manufacturing and environmental performance.
Advanced milling and machining capabilities at the Teesside plant mean it will be able to offer specialist products to the forklift and earthmoving industries, with hopes of growing export markets in various parts of the world
British Steel’s Commercial Director for Special Profiles David Waine said: “This is an exciting project that will establish us as a leading manufacturer on the world stage. Our high-quality profiles are supplied globally to make components for a wide range of market sectors, such as the forklift and earthmoving industries, and many of these applications are extremely demanding.
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“Our investment means we’ll have world-class products manufactured to the tightest of tolerances. It will enable us to explore new growth opportunities for our forklift mast products in Europe, North and South America, India and Asia. And although our primary product offering will be for forklift mast production, we expect to be able to expand this to include other product applications too.”
Work on the new facilities is planned to begin towards the end of the year with commissioning expected to start in August 2023. The large scale of the scheme will create work for a wide range of contractors covering a vast array of skills, from construction to turning and milling expertise to automated warehousing companies.
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The latest scheme builds on previous investments, including the installation of a £2 million (€2.33 million) surface descaling system, a high-tech product processing centre and a unique robotic identification tracking control for each profile manufactured at the Skinningrove mill.
“These projects are taking our profile offering from strength to strength. But it’s not just our series of investments that’s making the difference, the innovation and skill of our teams to think differently, identify new opportunities and implement them effectively is really transforming the products and services we’re able to offer. In the last 2 years alone, we’ve achieved an impressive 9 product patents and it’s this continued entrepreneurship that is driving our business forward," Waine added.
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