STEEL INDUSTRY

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1933, Page 12

STEEL INDUSTRY

EXPANSION IN GREAT BRITAIN. Arrangements have been completed for the erection at Corby, near Kettering,’ England, of a. large-scale iron and steel plant by Stewarts .and Lloyds, Ltd., a company which controls some 22 iron and steel and tube-manufacturing works in England and Scotland, and produces SO per cent, of the steel tubes made in Great Britain. The project is stated to be the opening of a new era and a new department for the British steel industry as a whole. It is the first development of the Northampton field planned on a large scale,, and it. is designed to produce steel previously imported from the Continent. The. plan is to erect a. steel works which shall cover every operation from

the extraction of ore to the consignment of finished tubes to the company’s customers. The whole of that part of Stewarts and Lloyds’ tube business which is at present based on Basic Bessemer steel will be concentrated at the new works.

Basic Bessemer steel was at one time manufactured in England on a considerable scale, but fox many years it has been, less favoured than the product of the open hearth process. On the. Continent, . however, it has. been used in large • volume, and ,in recognition of its qualities, imports of 'that steel into England have been on a large scale in recent ■' years. It is proposed that Corby shall supply the demand, which was formerly satisfied by such imports. The present scheme is of moderate size, the designed output being 300,000 tons of steel per annum. Its market in Great Britain wiU be. rendered more secure by the recent tariff imposed upon iron and steel imports. >J?he natural market will be in the growing engineering industries of the Midland area.

The scheme will be financed by Stewarts and Lloyds, Ltd., with the help of the Bankers’ Industrial Development Company. A group of large banks has agreed to provide the £3,300,000 required for the all-in costs of the scheme. This finance will be a temporary accommodation for the construction period, and will eventually be liquidated by an issue to the public ,of debentures or ordinary shares in ■ Stewarts and Lloyds.