Steelmaker Tata Steel has invested GBP6 million ($7.2 million) to upgrade its Trostre plant in Llanelli, Wales, it said July 27.
Danieli was the key contractor of the six-week project, which initially ran over December 2021 and January 2022 and included completely replacing all the control drives of the site’s continuous annealing process line, or CAPL, with a new system.
“The line capacity will improve by around 10% due to better availability and speed of work from around 7,000 mt/week to around 7,700 mt/week,” a Tata Steel spokesperson told S&P Global Commodity Insights.
The CAPL softens strip steels before they are made into cans for food, aerosols and paint.
“This is one of the biggest single investments in Trostre in recent years and allows us to run the line faster and for longer, removing a key bottleneck at the plant,” Works Manager Joe Gallacher said in a statement, adding that 70% of the plant’s output went through the processing line.
When asked if there were any other investment or upgrades planned for the plant, the spokesperson said the company was expecting to be able to announce further investments at the plant soon, including automatic online inspection and product shape control.
Tata Steel aims to reduce its CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 and produce net-zero steel by 2050 in the UK.
— Jacqueline Holman
