NEW STEEL WORKS IN WALES

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26512, 29 August 1951, Page 11

NEW STEEL WORKS IN WALES

WEEKLY OUTPUT OF 20,000 TONS The construction of the new continuous strip mill of the Steel Company of Wales, Ltd., at Margam, Wales, which was officially opened recently by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ha* bean completed in a shorter time than wa* expected in the original estimate, say* the Anandal editor of "The Time*.** In the prospectut issued in 18*7 for the company’s original issue eg £15,000,600 per cent debentures, it was forecast hat the new strip mill would “be run in and In production in five years.” Production actually started in the hot rolling mill early in June of this year, and although parts of the undertaking such a* the pickling plant and. the cold reduction mills are not yet ready. It is expected that production Will be approaching the plant's capacity by the end of the year, more than alx months ahead of schedule. Full production will be more than 20,000 tons a week, of which possibly twothirds will be used as sheet and the remainder as tin-plate. The achievement of this tonnage depends on adequate supplies of raw materials (as in all section* of the steel industry), but since the company has built up a considerable stock of scrap, no difficulties are expected on this account in at least the early stages. Most of the other forecasts made in the prospectus are also likely to be justified in the outcome, so long as present market conditions continue. The estimated profit in the early years was put at £1,200,000, and this rate of profit nas already been exceeded before the whole of the new integrated plant has come into operation. Full production, when It Is achieved, will increase the country's sheet production capacity by something like 30 per cent! The only estimate that has proved wrong Is that of cost In this matter the Steel Company of Wale* has had the same experience as other undertakings which tave set out to build or expand during the last few years. The total cost of the whole scheme was originally estimated at £60,000,000, but it is now certain that the final figure will be appreciably larger. The works stretch for four and a-half miles along the shore of the Bristol Channel. and cover more than 600 acres. They were partly financed by Marshall Aid dollars, and will use the latest American production methods.