Scunthorpe steels itself for offshore wind expansion

One area identified as having the potential to reduce the costs of offshore wind farms is through the benefits of basing production and supply chain activity in the UK, given the huge scale of wind farm activity planned for UK waters both current and in the future with Round 3 projects now progressing through the various preliminary stages.

Tata Steel now joins among others, Siemens, GE and Gamesa in investing in the UK wind energy industry following continuing positive signals from the government indicating their support for the industry, particularly the announcement of £60m worth of funding for the development of port infrastructure.

Steel manufactured at the company’s adjacent Scunthorpe Plate Mill and the Dalzell Plate Mill in Motherwell will be handled at the new hub utilising three new profile machines using gas burners to cut the plate into shapes suitable for fabricating into conical towers. The process will include the cutting of special edges to the plates, enabling customers to weld the edges together once the tubular steel structure has been formed. Typically each tower contains between 150 and 250 tons of steel and while Tate Steel state that most of their production will supply fabricators in the UK and mainland Europe, the completed wind towers could be shipped anywhere around the world.

Currently 4,500 people are employed by Tata in Scunthorpe and commissioning of the plant is expected to take a few months, with eventually 38 people employed at the plant, half of which will be new jobs. Also, 13 former contractors will be transferred to Tata Steel for the new operation.

Formerly known as Corus, Tata Steel Europe is part of Tata Steel, which employs 80,000 people on four continents and has an aggregate steel capacity of over 28 million tons. With its main steelmaking plants in the UK and the Netherlands, Tata is Europe’s second largest steel producer and in the top ten globally.

By Peter Barker