LIBERTY Steel Group UK (“LSUK”) today reaffirms its commitment to the UK as it sets out the next phase of its GREENSTEEL strategy with investment programmes focussed on an evolving market demand and gaps in the domestic supply chain.
LSUK has made substantial investments in the Rotherham steel operations it acquired three years ago from Tata Steel, when the business was producing just 225,000 tonnes per annum. On 16th Feb 2018, HRH Prince Charles switched on the second Electric Arc Furnace, the “N Furnace” at Rotherham, and inspired Sanjeev Gupta’s GREENSTEEL mission. This together with various upgrades to the plant has enabled the business to more than double production at Rotherham to over 500,000 tonnes per annum.
LSUK today announces that it will further boost production at Rotherham to over 1mtpa through investments to expand its product mix and making more productive use of its rolling mills to target attractive market segments.
GREENSTEEL Product Development
UK market demand for reinforcement bar (rebar) amounts to c.1.2 million tonnes annually, worth over £500 million. At present, half of this demand is met by imports, despite there being a surplus of scrap metal recovered in the UK which could be recycled into new steel products through Electric Arc Furnace (EAFs).
Given this gap in the market and further growth in construction expected from infrastructure projects such as HS2, LSUK is targeting this market by expanding its GREENSTEEL* product range.
LSUK is extending the product range of its Thrybergh Bar Mill* at Rotherham to include the production of construction rebar from September 2020. There are also plans to add capability to produce wire rod to feed both engineering and construction markets. With this new product strategy, LSUK will supply UK produced GREENSTEEL into the pipeline of domestic infrastructure projects that will be vital to the UK’s recovery in the post-pandemic economy.
Visit the LIBERTY Steel Group website to read the full media release.
