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Tata Steel Announces Five-Year Investment Program at IJmuiden
09/16/2011 - Tata Steel has announced a major five-year improvement program for its IJmuiden steelworks that represents a substantial investment that could total around EUR 800 million over the five-year period.
Tata Steel has announced a major five-year improvement program for its IJmuiden steelworks that is intended to sustain the plant’s potential to be a world-class steelmaker. The program represents a substantial investment that could total around EUR 800 million over the five-year period.
The improvement program will focus on three goals: further enhancing product quality, improving plant reliability and reducing costs. Targeting both cost reductions and growth through investment, the program should result in an increase in IJmuiden’s annual effective capacity to 7.7 million tonnes of liquid steel by 2015-16 (from 7.2 million) and a reduction in full-time jobs at the plant by about 1000 over the next four years.
The company said it will achieve these and other objectives by focusing on a range of activities such as environmental performance, maintenance and optimization of installations, further enhancement of product quality, and energy efficiency. The company will also invest in staff training and development.
“The IJmuiden works enjoys the great advantages of an ideal location – with its own port for bringing in raw materials and close proximity to the market – excellent lay-out, an ability to be flexible in the use of raw materials, and a high level of technology and craftsmanship,” said Karl-Ulrich Köhler, MD & CEO of Tata Steel in Europe. “Today’s improvement program aims at significantly strengthening IJmuiden’s position in the steel industry, helping it realize its potential as a world-class steel plant.”
Tata Steel has shared the improvement program with both the trade unions and the Central Works Council (CWC). The company said its intention as far as possible is that there should be no compulsory redundancies.
The European operations of Tata Steel (formerly known as Corus) comprise Europe's second-largest steel producer. With main steelmaking operations in the UK and the Netherlands, it supplies steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging, lifting and excavating and other demanding markets worldwide.
Tata Steel is one of the world’s top ten steel producers. The combined group has an aggregate crude steel capacity of more than 28 million tonnes and approximately 80,000 employees across four continents.
