Green steel takes shape at Port Talbot

The project to deliver Tata Steel UK's new low-carbon steelmaking facility has entered a major new phase, with the outline for new permanent structures beginning to emerge across the site.

Following a long period of preparation works, our project team’s focus has shifted to the foundations, infrastructure and buildings that will support the new electric arc furnace (EAF).

The EAF will replace the plant’s traditional blast furnace operations, supporting Tata's move towards lower-carbon steel and helping secure the future of steelmaking in South Wales.

We achieved a key milestone recently with completion of the first piling package, covering areas including the future Fume Extraction Plant and the Consteel conveyor spine. Aerial shots provide the first physical indications of where the new buildings will sit, and sense of the sheer size of the task at hand, with more than 700 precast piles used in the first phase alone.

The growing Consteel area will process scrap before feeding it into the furnace through a vast conveyor system that stretches more than 130 metres across the site.

The team are now progressing a second major piling package using a combination of precast, CFA and rotary bored piles. Across the site, no fewer than six piling rigs and two pre-bore rigs are in operation as foundations are installed for some of the project's most important assets, including the furnace itself.

The first major civils package is also now under way at the site’s western edge close to the shores of Morfa Beach, where Toureen are beginning civils work on the new Fume Extraction Plant (see right). This complex facility will capture and filter emissions from the new steelmaking process before air is released into the atmosphere. This includes constructing silos to extract the dust, which contains a high steel content, meaning it can be sold on, as well as installing filtration systems, and electrical and compressor facilities.

Work to prepare areas for major crane replacement activities within the former vast Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) plant, which will house the new EAF is also nearing completion. At a mere 420 tonnes each, the previous cranes weren’t big enough.

It’s all been achieved against the backdrop of a sizzling summer which, along with the vehicle movements associated with the ongoing works, has brought the additional challenges of continuously dampening down the site, no mean feat across such a significant area over a prolonged period of dry weather.

Several further civils packages are also close behind and with multiple contractors preparing to mobilise across the site, activity levels are increasing significantly all the time.

Building the infrastructure for green steel

Alongside the production facilities themselves, progress is also being made on the infrastructure needed to power the future plant.

National Grid's new substation is under construction, while plans are progressing for four major electrical buildings that will distribute and manage power across the site once it arrives. Dedicated piling, civils and building works will support these facilities, which are critical to the commissioning of the EAF.

The first section of the permanent scrap road has also been completed and will eventually carry 100-tonne loads between the scrap handling area, part of which the site’s office & welfare facilities currently sit on.

Across other areas of the project, the team have successfully completed a number of enabling works requirements that will support future construction activity. Former stockyard areas have been transformed into mechanical pre-assembly compounds where thousands of containers of equipment will eventually be unpacked and assembled before installation.

One of the UK's most significant industrial transformation projects is starting to take shape.