Many of the existing ‘heavy end’ assets —such as blast furnaces and coke ovens— in Tata Steel UK’s Port Talbot works, had reached the end of their operational life. Sustaining the current configuration any longer, or further investment in the traditional heavy end, was not economically or environmentally viable.

It is the largest investment for many years at the Hartlepool site, which produces over 200,000 tonnes a year of steel tubes, supplying a wide range of products such as agricultural machinery, sports stadiums, steel-framed buildings and the energy sector. 

The Launchpad project is a collaboration between Marine Power Systems (MPS), Tata Steel UK, Swansea University, Associated British Ports and leading engineering and fabrication company, Ledwood Engineering. 

Over the last three years, Tata Steel, part of India’s Tata Group, one of the UK’s largest private sector investors and the UK Government have worked hard to develop a sustainable future for Tata Steel UK and the Port Talbot Plant.

The sale has been facilitated by Warmflame Developments (WD) who have worked with Tata Steel UK for the last seven years to progress the sale of the hugely complex 99-acre site to a leading real estate developer – that’s the equivalent of about 62 football pitches. The end use of the plot will be a fully-serviced campus-style logistics hub.