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Teesside Beam Mill

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Coordinates: 54°35′17″N 1°08′06″W / 54.588°N 1.135°W / 54.588; -1.135
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Teesside Beam Mill
A long building with a tall cylindrical chimney on the left-hand side
Teesside Beam Mill
Map
Built1954–1958
LocationLackenby, North Yorkshire, England
Coordinates54°35′17″N 1°08′06″W / 54.588°N 1.135°W / 54.588; -1.135
IndustrySteel
ProductsI-Beams
Employees400 (2023)
Volume750,000 tonnes (830,000 tons) (2006)
Owner(s)British Steel

Teesside Beam Mill (TBM) is a steel reheating and rolling plant located at Lackenby, on Teesside, North Yorkshire, England. The plant was set up in the 1950s by the Dorman Long company and began full production in 1958, making beams for building projects. The plant produces around 750,000 tonnes (830,000 tons) of steel products per year, and is the United Kingdom's only producer of large steel sections for the building industry.

History

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The Teesside Beam Mill[note 1] was developed after the Second World War, on a strip of land at Lackenby, sandwiched between the Middlesbrough to Redcar railway line to the north, and the A1085 trunk road to the south. The narrow land measured 680 acres (280 ha) across, providing some 2,215 acres (896 ha) in total, with the buildings arranged diagonally between the two transport modes so as maximise land space.[3] Groundwork for the beam plant was started by Dorman Long in 1954, with the mill being built from 1955 onwards.[4] The mill was completed in 1958, with an eventual cost of £18 million.[5][6] It was built adjacent to the Lackenby steel plant to enable steel ingots to be shipped in to the facility from the open-hearth plant next door,[7] and was opened by Alexander Fleck who was chairman of ICI (ICI had a new plant under construction at nearby Wilton).[8]

Originally the plant rolled steel for the bridge building industry, but later the plant specialised in beams for the construction industry.[9] Its first project was to supply steel beams of 75 feet (23 m) length for the Catterick Bypass of the A1 road in North Yorkshire, in 1958.[10] Another of its earlier projects was to supply high-tensile beams between 45 feet (14 m) and 60 feet (18 m) long for the Gladesville Bridge over the Paramatta River in New South Wales (just upstream from Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was the first time that beams of that length had been rolled in that type of steel.[11] By the 21st century, the beam mill was the only plant in the United Kingdom capable of producing large steel sections for the building and construction industry.[12][13]

The merger of British Steel and Hoogovens to form Corus was completed by 1999, and in the first year of operation, the Teesside Cast Products (TCP) business lost money, so a restructuring programme was initiated, but this did not include the TBM, and management of the mill was aligned away from TCP under the Scunthorpe operations.[14] By the early 2000s, the plant was taking semi-finished steel from either the Teesside or Scunthorpe Steelworks, melting it at a temperature of 1,300 °C (2,370 °F), to make I-beams (girders) for the construction industry.[15] Ingots ranging in weight from 5.6–21.3 tonnes (6.2–23.5 tons) are brought to temperature and rolled in a primary mill, these are then sent to a roughing and finishing mill, before being hot sawn to the customers required length, and then coolled.[16] Since the closure of the adjacent Teesside Steelworks at Redcar, the Scunthorpe plant some 120 kilometres (75 mi) to the south has sent semi-finished steel to TBM via train,[17] though some slab deliveries from Scunthorpe had started in the early 2000s.[18][note 2]

The plant produced 1,000,000 tonnes (1,100,000 tons) of girders in 1960, 520,000 tonnes (570,000 tons) in 1969 and 1977, 600,000 tonnes (660,000 tons) in 1989, and 750,000 tonnes (830,000 tons) in 2006.[16][20][21][22][15] In 2023 the plant had around 400 people working there.[23][24] A new reheat furnace was built at the plant between 1984 and 1985, costing £17 million (equivalent to £65,059,000 in 2023), and the whole plant was modernised in the late 1980s at a cost of £69 million (equivalent to £216,830,000 in 2023),[25] and a new high technology mill was completed in the summer of 1991. The new process in the mill reduced lead-in time for the creation of new beams from 18 hours to three hours.[26]

Notable uses of TBM steel

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Owners

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Future

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Steel from Scunthorpe in Tees Yard

British Steel have put forward a proposal to take green hydrogen to power the plant instead of natural gas. This is projected to commence in 2024, with the hydrogen being produced nearby on Teesside.[39] The TBM plant requires an energy consumption of 1.8 gigajoules (500 kWh) per 1-tonne (1.1-ton) of steel rolled, which needs 45.6 cubic metres (1,610 cu ft) of natural gas, releasing 2.02 kilograms (4.5 lb) of carbon into the atomosphere.[40]

The owners of the Teesside Beam Mill, British Steel, announced in November 2023 their intention to stop making primary steel using the basic oxygen process at their Scunthorpe plant, and instead to utilise two Electric arc furnaces (EAF) to produce semi-finished steel from scrap metal. One of these EAF plants would be built adjacent to Teesside Beam Mill and would be used to supply the feedstock metal for the TBM and another British Steel plant at Skinningrove.[41][42] This would mean the closure of the Scunthorpe plant with the loss of 2,000 jobs, and the cessation of semi-finished steel from Lincolnshire through to Teesside on freight trains, as the primary metal for the beam mill would be sourced from the adjacent plant EAF located nearby.[43] In April 2024, the EAF plant was given the go-ahead, with a view to being operational in 2025.[44] The EAF plant is slated to be 210 feet (64 m) tall, and cover an area of 370,000 square feet (34,000 m2).[45]

Notes

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  1. ^ The beam mill is a downstream process plant; raw steel used to be carried to an adjacent plant on an internal railway from Redcar Steel making plant, which was a smelter, or primary steelworks. This was then taken to the TBM as ingots to be rolled into beams.[1][2]
  2. ^ The steelworks at Redcar ceased producing steel for Corus in 2007. This plant was the primary source for raw steel for the TBM. When SSI re-lit the furnaces at Redcar to restart the steelmaking process in April 2012, their products were destined for elsewhere. Corus, later Tata, then British Steel, supplied the TBM from their plant at Scunthorpe.[19]

References

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  1. ^ "Energy use in the steel industry" (PDF). worldsteel.org. April 2021. p. 2. Retrieved 4 July 2024.
  2. ^ Cowburn 2016, p. 17.
  3. ^ Cowburn 2016, p. 5.
  4. ^ "Teesside Beam Mill marks 60th anniversary by investing in the future". britishsteel.co.uk. 22 May 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  5. ^ "Dorman Long Expansion". The Times. No. 53987. 1 November 1957. p. 16. ISSN 0140-0460.
  6. ^ House, John W.; Fullerton, Brian (1960). Tees-side at mid-century: an industrial and economic survey. London: MacMillan. p. 212. OCLC 5704897.
  7. ^ Cowburn 2016, pp. 7, 9.
  8. ^ Judge, Edward Thomas (1992). Dorman Long: a concise history. Brian Goodyear. p. 11. OCLC 1128419976.
  9. ^ "Job losses at Teesside steelworks". BBC News. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  10. ^ a b "Rolling Europe's largest beam". The Manchester Guardian. No. 34, 767. 11 April 1958. p. 8. ISSN 0261-3077.
  11. ^ a b Baxter, J. W; Gee, A. F; James, H. B (March 1965). "Gladesville Bridge". Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. 30 (3): 515. doi:10.1680/iicep.1965.9523.
  12. ^ a b Pidd, Helen; Murray, Jessica (29 May 2019). "Redcar: how the end of steel left a tragic legacy in a proud town". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  13. ^ a b Tighe, Chris; Rovnick, Naomi; Gross, Anna; Bounds, Andy (24 May 2019). "How British Steel's demise may destroy communities". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  14. ^ a b Cowburn 2016, p. 23.
  15. ^ a b "Teeside [sic] Beam Mill Case study: Marking" (PDF). ibrary.e.abb.com. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  16. ^ a b "BSC's Finishing Facilities - ProQuest". Steel Times International. 206 (6). Redhill: Quartz Business Media Ltd: 54–55. June 1978. ISSN 0143-7798. ProQuest 1365687135.
  17. ^ Cattermole et al 2022, p. 10.
  18. ^ Cowburn 2016, p. 54.
  19. ^ Cowburn 2016, p. 3.
  20. ^ "New Mill Output Grows". The Times. No. 55189. 18 September 1961. p. 18. ISSN 0140-0460.
  21. ^ Images of Teesside. Derby: Breedon. 1998. p. 11. ISBN 1859831133.
  22. ^ "British Steel". Iron and Steel Engineer. 67. Pittsburgh: Association of Iron and Steel Engineers: 37. 1990. ISSN 0021-1559. OCLC 1753960.
  23. ^ Jones, Leigh (16 September 2023). "Job cuts expected despite £500m government deal on steelworks". The Yorkshire Post. p. 2. ISSN 0963-1496.
  24. ^ Hughes, Mike (4 October 2022). "Everything we know as British Steel 'rescue talks' leads to fears over hundreds of North East jobs". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  25. ^ Sadler, David (March 1990). "Privatising British Steel: The Politics of Production and Place". Area. 22 (1). Royal Geographical Society: 52. ISSN 0004-0894.
  26. ^ Kanji, Gopal K. (1996). Total quality management in action. London: Chapman & Hall. p. 192. ISBN 9780412782206.
  27. ^ McLauchlan, Karen (4 October 2011). "£1.5m for Lackenby". The Middlesbrough Evening Gazette. p. 10. ISSN 1367-0603.
  28. ^ "Hope of saving steel jobs". The Newcastle Journal. 12 August 2009. p. 25. ISSN 0307-3645.
  29. ^ Tighe, Chris; Pooler, Michael (15 September 2016). "British Steel signs deal to supply two new London skyscrapers". Financial Times. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  30. ^ a b Price, Kelley (22 May 2018). "Steel mill that helped transform the world's skyline has turned 60". Teesside Live. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  31. ^ King, Ian (5 December 2009). "Corus says lack of state support is to blame for Teesside mothballing". The Times. No. 69811. p. 69. ISSN 0140-0460.
  32. ^ "Doubts remain over steel jobs". BBC News. 24 September 2003. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  33. ^ Harrison, Michael (31 January 2007). "Tata buys steel giant Corus for £6.2bn". The Independent. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  34. ^ Burn, Chris (14 September 2017). "Campaigners call on MPs to intervene in steel pensions". The Yorkshire Post. p. 1. ISSN 0963-1496.
  35. ^ Farrell, Sean (1 June 2016). "Tata completes sale to Greybull, saving jobs and reviving British Steel". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  36. ^ Lea, Robert (1 July 2024). "British Steel returns as Tata sells works for £1". The Times. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  37. ^ Jolly, Jasper (11 November 2019). "British Steel to be sold to Chinese firm in deal that could save 4,000 jobs". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  38. ^ "British Steel: Takeover by Chinese firm completed". BBC News. 8 March 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  39. ^ Cattermole et al 2022, pp. 1–3.
  40. ^ Cattermole et al 2022, p. 3.
  41. ^ Walker, Martin (7 November 2023). "How Teesside will play key role in British Steel's green ambitions". Tees Business. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  42. ^ "Steelmaking to Return to Teesside Under Plans For Electric Arc Furnace". Tees Valley. 6 November 2023. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  43. ^ Burgess, Tom (10 November 2023). "British Steel unveils electric arc furnace plan for Teesside". Darlington & Stockton Times. No. 2023–45. p. 63. ISSN 2516-5348.
  44. ^ "British Steel Redcar electric arc furnace gets planning permission". BBC News. 4 April 2024. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  45. ^ Arnold, Stuart (3 April 2024). "'Over the moon': Planning approval given for return of steelmaking to Teesside". Teesside Live. Retrieved 2 May 2024.

Sources

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