Tata Steel announces £7 million investment in Hartlepool mill site

The money will be invested in a “vital” new production process at Tata’s Hartlepool Tube Mill, in Brenda Road, and boost capacity at another of its sites in Wales.

The new slitter line at the Hartlepool site will allow it to process coils of steel delivered from its Port Talbot steelmaking site.

Currently, wide steel slabs are slit in Port Talbot before being rolled and sent to Hartlepool where they are turned into steel tubes and used in a wide range of products such as agricultural machinery, sports stadiums, steel-framed buildings and the energy sector.

Andrew Ward, works manager of Tata Steel in Hartlepool, said: “This project will allow us to bring a vital process on site, which in turn will free up thousands of tonnes of capacity at the Port Talbot site.

“This will improve our efficiency and reduce overall CO2 emissions from our steel processing as well as reducing the total costs across the business.”

The investment will create an additional nine full time permanent positions at the Hartlepool mill where almost 300 workers produce up to 200,000 tonnes of steel tubes a year.

All of Tata’s steel products made at in Hartlepool are 100% recyclable.

The company says there will also be many more additional contractor roles during the construction of the new line which is expected to take more than a year to complete.

Andrew added: “Above all, safety will be a key factor in this investment both during the construction phase and when the new slitter is up and running.

"It will feature the latest computer controlled technology, which reduces the need for our employees to be close to any hazardous operations and it will be as energy-efficient as possible.

"This investment will support the ongoing drive to improve customer delivery performance and responsiveness which the Hartlepool 20” Mill team pride themselves upon.”

Tata Steel in the UK aims to produce net-zero steel by 2050 at the latest and reduce 30% of CO2 emissions by 2030.