The Economist 2012.10.27 by The Economist

Author:The Economist [The Economist]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Economist
Published: 2012-10-25T17:58:14.838000+00:00

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Steelmaking in Wales

Coked up

A steelworks gets a new lease of life despite a slump in demand

MUCH modern manufacturing takes place on spotless shop floors with only the lightest sprinkling of staff to monitor the purring machinery. So Tata Steel’s works at Port Talbot in south Wales come across as reassuringly gritty and old-school. The site is vast. A drive round its private roadways clocks up a dozen or so miles. A visitor passes hulking edifices, from coke ovens to huge steel-rolling mills, and finds a whiff of desolation, too. The makers of “Doctor Who”, a science-fiction television series, have asked to use the moonscape created by mounds of coal and ore as a backdrop.

At least one corner of the works is teeming as one of the site’s two blast furnaces is replaced. The old furnace was snuffed out in July after 20 years’ service. The new one will be built around a steel shell made of 14 tiers. Each has to be carefully lifted by a giant mobile crane, which itself had first to be assembled. A convoy of lorries was required to bring it to Wales.

As the tiers pile higher, a small army of welders, pipe-fitters and electricians works at close quarters to reconnect the furnace to the works’ infrastructure. A cadre of specialists from Portugal stands ready to line the furnace shell with heat-resistant bricks. In total, around 800 contractors are working on the new furnace at any time (the factory’s regular workforce is 3,500). The bill comes to £185m ($296m). Tata reckons it is the biggest capital project in British industry this year.

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