According to British media reports, during last week the Thai group Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), owner of the UK-based steel mill Redcar, resumed steel production at the former Teesside Cast Plant. The company may account upon the second biggest blast furnace in Europe with an annual production capacity of 3.5 million mt, even though the asset was mothballed since two years.
The UK-based subsidiary SSI UK managed the long phase of restarting the smelting and casting plants, which has costed the Thai group around $1,1 billion above the purchase price of $470 million paid to Tata Steel in order to complete the transaction. Tata Steel, the previous owner of the Redcar steelworks, tried to reignite the blast furnace right after the 2008 crisis, but it had to cease its efforts because off-takers contract were not respected by its partners.
The Redcar steelworks lies in North-eastern England, close to the city of Middlesbrough and directly on the shore of the North Sea. Also due to its geographical locatio, from the beginning of next month the steel products of SSI UK will exclusively exported to Thailand. The restart of the Redcar-based plants has also a major occupational importance, as it is going to provide around 1,800 jobs.