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Tata Steel to Supply Rail for New High-Speed Track in France
09/22/2011 - Tata Steel has secured an order to supply 84,000 tonnes of high-quality rail for a new high-speed track between the French cities of Bordeaux and Tours.
Tata Steel has secured an order to supply 84,000 tonnes of high-quality rail for a new high-speed track between the French cities of Bordeaux and Tours. The new South-Europe-Atlantique line is a 302-km (188-mi) long line that reportedly will be one of the world’s largest infrastructure projects launched in the last decade.
The steel will be manufactured in Scunthorpe, UK, before being rolled into rail at Tata Steel’s mill in Hayange, northeast France, for delivery from 2014. The company will also supply switches and crossings to the construction consortium COSEA. The total value of the steel supplied will be around €80 million.
The South-Europe-Atlantique project will connect southwestern France with high-speed rail services from northern Europe, including London, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. Work on building 19 viaducts and seven tunnels is expected to start in the first half of 2012. The first passengers are expected to travel on the new line in 2016.
Gérard Glas, Head of Tata Steel’s Rail Sector, said: “This is a prestigious project which we are delighted to have secured. We will be supplying rails each measuring 108 meters long. These longer rails give passengers a smoother ride and reduce maintenance costs.
“This order is also an endorsement of our company strategy to invest in premium steel products. We are currently ramping up production at our Hayange rail rolling mill after the completion of a €35 million upgrade. The investment means we can now produce 108-meter rail at our facilities in France and the UK.”
Tata Steel supplied the rail from its Hayange plant for the track on which a TGV broke the world train speed record in 2007. The French train reached a speed of 574.8 km/h (357 mph) between Paris and Strasbourg.
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, they supply steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging, material handling and other demanding markets worldwide. Tata Steel is one of the world’s top 10 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.
