Tata Steel’s major investment in region’s sites

The steelmaker was hit hard by sharp declines in demand, forcing it to shed around 1,500 jobs during 2009.

But following a decision to focus on high-value markets and a turnaround job, the division is said to be profitable again and yesterday Tata Steel announced a £4.5m investment in four separate improvement projects at its Rotherham and Stocksbridge sites. Mark Broxholme, managing director of Tata Steel’s speciality steels business, said the investment would improve the energy efficiency and reliability of operations in South Yorkshire and also reduce the company’s impact on the environment.

He said: “In the last year Tata Steel has invested more than £20m in South Yorkshire.

“This is a huge indication of the company’s confidence in our ability to produce some of the most technically demanding and safety-critical products our customers require.”

The Indian-owned group is investing £1m in surface inspection equipment at Thrybergh bar mill, £2m in fume extraction equipment and £500,000 in moulding equipment at Rotherham and £1m in re-heating furnaces at Stocks- bridge.

In an interview with the Yorkshire Post, steel industry veteran Mr Broxholme said that while there is a lot of uncertainty around the UK and Europe economies, demand is holding up very well in his markets, which include the aerospace, oil and gas, automotive and power sectors.

He said: “The steelmakers in this part of the world are really supplying those value added sectors, sectors where applications are normally safety critical and much of the technology is built into the steel itself.

“Our products are in demand and markets tend to be global markets.

“For us, the really important thing is strength and competitiveness of supply chain. That seems to be working for us. It is reassuring that one of the Sheffield city region’s key plans is speciality metal.

“It’s all fitting together very nicely.”

He said Tata Steel was not being hit by the slowdown in steelmaking seen elsewhere in Europe, where some producers are mothballing plants.

The company employs more than 2,000 people in South Yorkshire.

It added 450 last year following the mass redundancies a year earlier.

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