The future of packaging steel
In our safety gear in front of the Tata Steel offices (L-R: Alex Rivers, Nicola Jones, Sarah Hills). Image: Bell Publishing
Last week, I teased that Sarah Hills and I were off to Wales for a site visit, which I’m pleased to be able to talk more about now. We visited Tata Steel‘s Trostre Works, with our host being Nicola Jones, the company’s market and business development manager.
The morning began by discussing Trostre’s history, its customers and its future plans with Nicola and Tata Steel’s UK marketing manager and sustainability lead, Adrian Davies. The site is set to be at the forefront of UK sustainable steel production thanks to Tata Steel’s investment in technology. Two new electric arc furnaces (EAFs) will replace the current blast furnace at the company’s Port Talbot site in Wales by 2028. By using electrical energy to melt scrap steel, Trostre Works will be able to deliver high-quality, food-safe packaging steel with 50 per cent lower CO₂ emissions and at least 50 per cent recycled content by 2030.
Next, we suited up in safety gear for a tour around the production floor with Nicola, watching the heavy-duty cranes lift the steel coils along the production floor before and after undergoing the various production processes (pickling, cold rolling, tempering and coating). The footprint of the site is impressive and the scale of operations even more so. Constant monitoring of the line is also carried out, and we managed a couple of sneak peeks in the control rooms.
With over 25 years in the industry, Nicola has a wealth of knowledge, as well as many fond memories and anecdotes she was able to share with us from throughout her career thus far. Her passion for Trostre as a site and all its employees was inspiring to see – “we really are like a big family here,” she said.
We are pleased to be welcoming Nicola to our editorial board going forward, so keep your eyes peeled for future contributions from her and other colleagues at Tata Steel.
Thank you once again to Nicola, Adrian and the Trostre team for the warm welcome and wisdom shared!
- Alex Rivers (she/her), CanTech International editor
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