Peter Jones, EAF Programme Manager, reflects on a successful contractor engagement event in Port Talbot.
Someone suggested in our contractor engagement day last week that managing 30 or 40 different contractor partners across our multiple strategic capex projects would be a bit like herding cats.
And I get it.
Because the whole project from planning through decommissioning, design, engineering, site preparation, construction and commissioning is about as complex a project as you can imagine.
And remember, we’re not only trying to spend £1.25 billion in 3 years, in 3 square miles, we’re also running a 3 million tonne steel business and decommissioning our entire iron and steelmaking assets – all at the same time.
Which is why it was so important to start as we mean to go on by bringing everyone together in a room and setting out our stall – on safety, on professionalism, on standards, on behaviours, on how we treat each other and how we will work as a single team.
If any contractor company representatives left last week’s engagement day with a lack of clarity about how serious we are about setting the highest standards and measuring ourselves against them, then they’re probably not the company we want to partner with.
It was so important to bring everyone together in a room and set out our stall – on safety, on professionalism, on standards, on behaviours, on how we treat each other and how we will work as a single team.
To be fair, the immediate feedback I had personally on the day was tremendously positive – people have a real desire to get on board with this project and a real desire to work together for a common cause.
People realise just how big this project is, and they realise how important it is for our industry, for our communities and the UK economy.
I think there are a lot of us at the start of this journey who want to be able to look back on these next three years with an enormous sense of pride.
In 2028 when people are talking about having created a successful, sustainable and profitable steel industry at the heart of UK manufacturing, I want to be able to say “I was part of that.”
Peter
Peter Jones is the Programme Manager for the design and installation of the new 3 million tonnes-a-year Electric Arc Furnace and the Continuous Casters life-extension at Port Talbot Steelworks in South Wales
WATCH a video summary of the contractor engagement day, here: Local contractors gear up for Port Talbot's green steel revolution - YouTube
About Tata Steel UK
- The Tata Steel Group has been named one of the most ethical companies in the world, and is among the top producing global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of 34 million tonnes.
Tata Steel in the UK has the ambition to produce net-zero steel by 2045 at the latest, and to have reduced 30% of its CO2 emissions by 2030. - In October 2024, Tata Steel ceased ironmaking at its Port Talbot site and temporarily paused steelmaking pending the construction of a 3.2Mtpa Electric Arc Furnace, due to be commissioned late in 2027 / early 2028. For that period, the business will import slab and hot rolled coil to support manufacturing and distribution operations at sites across Wales, England and Northern Ireland as well as Norway, Sweden, France, Germany and UAE. It also benefits from a network of sales offices around the world.
- Throughout 2024 Tata Steel UK has been undergoing a restructuring that will reduce the size of its workforce to around 5000 direct employees, supplying high-quality steel products to demanding markets, including construction and infrastructure, automotive, packaging and engineering.
- Tata Steel Group is one of the world's most geographically-diversified steel producers, with operations and a commercial presence across the world.
The group recorded a consolidated turnover of around US$27.7 billion in the financial year ending March 31, 2024.
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