Tata Steel has announced that it will supply rail track and steel sleeper plate to Network Rail, UK's railway network, for at least five years. Accordingly, Network Rail will source more than 95 percent of its rail from Tata Steel until 2019, with the option to extend this until 2024.
The contract could see Tata Steel supplying more than a million metric tons of rail, including premium products, for Britain's passenger and freight lines.
According to Tata Steel's statement, since 2000 more than £160 million has been invested in Tata Steel's advanced rail manufacturing facilities at its Scunthorpe site to enable it to produce the 216-meter long rail customers want. Alongside this investment, Tata Steel has transformed the manufacturing logistics to handle the new long rail products required by customers such as Network Rail.
The latest Network Rail deal will account for around five percent of the annual steel output from Tata Steel's Scunthorpe site.