On August 13, Indian steel giant Tata Steel's European subsidiary Corus unveiled plans to construct a new £31.5 million manufacturing plant in Teesside, UK, which would potentially create 220 jobs.
According to Corus' statement, preliminary engineering work is underway at the Corus Redcar site to develop a new facility to produce steel foundation structures - called monopiles - used to secure offshore wind turbines to the seabed.
The intention is to redeploy and reequip redundant buildings on the company's 3,000 acre Teesside site for monopile production and shipment of the structures which can weigh as much as 650 mt.
Chris Elliot, Corus director of product marketing, said: "The UK Government has approved ambitious plans to build thousands of wind turbines at sea over the next 10 years. They are intended to generate 35 gigawatts of electricity - around 15 percent of the UK's energy requirements. Similar developments are taking place in other European countries. In the UK alone, we estimate that about 6 million mt of steel will be needed over the next 10 years."