Corus wins huge Navy contract
TEESSIDE-BASED steelmaker Corus has secured a multi-million pound contract to supply 80,000 tonnes of steel for the Royal Navy’s biggest ever aircraft carriers.
Around 90% of the steel will be manufactured at Corus’ three UK operations, including Skinningrove on Teesside, in a contract worth up to £65m. Other sites involved in the project are at Scunthorpe and Dalzell, near Motherwell in Scotland.
Corus said the deal confirmed its ability to produce world-class steel and was a major boost for Skinnigrove.
John Arthur, director of special profiles at the Skinningrove operation, said it was more good news for Teesside and would further help change the industry’s image in the North-east.
He said: “Until about 2000, the industry was making all the wrong headlines for site closures and decreased capacity. Contracts such as this one show that the industry has a major part to play in the economic growth of the region.
“For every job that we create, another three or four are generated in support services.”
He revealed that late last year, the company created 40 jobs in anticipation of winning the Royal Navy contract.
It will start rolling the steel for the £3.8bn carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, later this year. Both are due to enter service in 2014 and 2016. Each carrier will be 284 metres long and 56 metres high, and carry 40 aircraft. The flight deck will be the size of three football pitches.
Corus’ Scunthorpe and Dalzell steelworkers will produce plate steel for the ships’ hulls, while the company’s employees in Skinningrove will manufacture bulb flats - steel used to stiffen the construction.
Redcar and Cleveland Council's Leader Councillor George Dunning, a former steelworker, has welcomed the news. He said: “This is fantastic news for Skinngrove and the East Cleveland economy. This brings additional security for local families on the back of a recent 10-year contract for the Redcar sites.
“It also makes our traditional industries here in Redcar and Cleveland, along with the Wilton International chemical site, the place to be for job security.”
Corus is Europe's second largest steel producer with annual revenues of over £11bn and a crude steel production of about 20m tonnes. With main steelmaking operations primarily in the UK and the Netherlands, Corus provides solutions to the construction, automotive, packaging, mechanical engineering and other markets worldwide.
Corus is a subsidiary of Tata Steel, the world's sixth largest steel producer. With the recent acquisition of Corus, the combined enterprise has an aggregate crude steel production capacity of around 28.1 million tonnes with approximately 82,700 employees across four continents.
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