In late January, a blast furnace revamped by Primetals Technologies was relit at Tata Steel Europe´s steelworks in Port Talbot in South Wales, United Kingdom. The aim of this major investment project was to extend the useful life of Blast Furnace 5 and thus strengthen the position of Britain´s biggest steelworks. Primetals Technologies won the contract to execute the work and was responsible for engineering, planning, equipment and material supply, demolition and erection - all to be executed during an ambitious shutdown stoppage in late 2018. The major areas of work included the replacement of a ring of the furnace shell, replacement of cooling elements inside the shell, partial replacement of the carbon hearth refractories, the waste gas downcomer replacement, further shell modifications as well as general furnace lining repairs.
Tata Steel is one of Europe's leading steel producers, with steelmaking plants in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and manufacturing plants across Europe. The company supplies high-quality steel products to the most demanding markets, including construction and infrastructure, automotive, packaging and engineering. The Port Talbot steelworks operates two blast furnaces and produces slab, hot rolled, cold rolled and galvanized coil. Before the revamp, Blast Furnace 5 had been running for 15 years and produced some 30 million metric tons of iron.
Tata Steel and Primetals Technologies, together with their sub-contractors, worked together to deliver the program scope in a professional manner, ensuring safety and security to the daily tasks. Primetals Technologies were involved in design of the replacement parts, stress analysis of these items, lifting stress calculations, construction engineering, construction planning, temporary works calculations and all other tasks necessary to follow the British CDM (Construction Design and Management) regulations, in addition to the daily management of the works site.
Tata Steel Port Talbot and Primetals Technologies have a long-standing, successful partnership. In 2018, Primetals Technologies supplied a transfer bar cooling system for the hot strip mill, which increased the mill's production capacity.
