indeed it is, in an area already decimated with the closure of Fords and now this we're heading into desperate times if this does happen , the supply chain will be impacted along with local shops and no other major employer in the area.I feel for the future of this part of s Wales
Have you heard if there's any truth in this Taff? How could electric arc furnaces supply the amounts needed by the B.O.S.? When I was in the B.O.S. the blasts struggled to keep up at times.
I will check with my contacts. The reality is that it is probably cheaper for Tata to make the steel in India and to ship the slabs to Port Talbot. Two benefits for the Indians, helps to fill their own blast furnaces and a (major) cost saving. Remember also that under the ‘One Company Operating Model’ Tata Steel Europe is ‘controlled’ by the Dutch - they would love to see primary steelmaking eliminated one Port Talbot - they could see a (potential) steelmaking competitor removed and, at the same time, strengthen their control of the business in Europe (which - in my opinion - puts, and always has, IJmuiden first). I actually saw a post (in Dutch) on LinkedIn today which was commenting on the potential purchase of Port Talbot by Liberty Steel (Mr Gupta). The post said that if the talked of sale went ahead they would be flying flags in celebration in Holland. In my opinion, there’d be even more flags flying in South Wales if Port Talbot and Trostre (et al) could escape from the clutches of the Dutch
Thank you Taff. Given the size of 4+5 blasts. Any idea of the costs of adapting to arc and the timescale to do the same? There has to be job cuts in transferring. With electric arc do we know if sulphur levels are lowered?Hence de-sulph units at B.O.S being mothballed/redundant?
I’ve no idea of the potential costs involved - but what I would say is that the Executive Director on the Board of Tata Steel in India with responsibility for Tata Steel Europe is Koushik Chatterjee, who is also CFO for the entire Tata Steel empire. Koushik is a ‘tidy’ guy who has been CFO of the year in Corporate India on 2 or 3 occasions. If this story has ‘legs’, you can be certain that the financials have been thoroughly investigated.
If I may offer an opinion, I would think sulphur levels will fall since most of it comes from the coal used for coke production and some from the iron ore. The arc furnaces will be fed by scrap steel that should not have any sulphur in it.
55 - my information is that this story does indeed ‘have legs’..... The Government probably thinks it’s a good idea to switch to electric arc - after dealing with Liberty Steel and ‘British Steel’, some on the Government’s negotiating team probably think that they are ‘experts’ ..... a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing......
55 - the PPF’s stake was a much lower/worse outcome than they were angling for. They were (allegedly) doing their best to stymie the creation on BSPS 2 - they wanted the BSPS to fall into its hands entirely. Why? The BSPS had assets of c£15bn. Under the then rules (RPI indexation) the Liabilities were c£16bn. So in deficit. BSPS 2, changing the rules to pay CPI indexation (plus a few other tweaks), would have Liabilities of ‘only’ c£13bn. So very ‘safe’ and in surplus. However, because the PPF’s rules/benefits are less generous than BSPS 2, the Liabilities would be only c£11bn - so they would have had a windfall of £4bn: effectively, steelworkers’ pension pots would be paying and subsidising all the other Schemes in the PPF. That is why the Trustees fought so long and hard to keep a viable Scheme out of the clutches of the PPF - and in fairness to Tata India, particularly the CFO Koushik Chatterjee - they felt likewise. So when the PPF tried to move the goalposts to penalise unsponsored Schemes, Tata said they would continue to sponsor and stand behind BSPS 2. So a 33.333% stake in a ‘worthless’ Tata Steel U.K. is the square root of ferk all. Hopefully, with the Government a possible part owner, any funds from this proposal would help to transform the UK business. In my view, what the pandemic has proven, is that we need a strong and wide ranging U.K. manufacturing industry.
Blast and electric arc are very different animals - Blast produces (pig) iron and electric charge scrap steel with additives Arc furnaces are much smaller but can have many more charges in a day than heats on a blast. Manning wise you lose the material handling and coke ovens if they still have one.
It didn’t help that someone on the Tata Sons Board (not Tata Steel) apparently said that they have sufficient cash....
The ‘problem’ is that Tata is not a ‘Group’ in the (Western) conventional sense. Tata Sons Limited sits at the top of the tree and has large stakes in all its ‘investments’ - it doesn’t own all (and in some cases not even 50%) of the shares in these investments....
I’ve said for years that the U.K. has been shafted by the Dutch.... I suspect that the Govt will now invest as it’s a U.K. business ....
