Steelmaking resumes at Redcar - Teesside in UK - Ansaldo Sistemi ...

Steelmaking resumes
at Redcar - Teesside in UK
Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali (ASI) revamps the blast furnace and obtains a new order for the plant
Claudio Fapanni - Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali
The production of steel restarted at Teesside
when the blast furnace at Redcar was relit at
4:30 pm on Sunday April 15 th , and the first
slab was produced on April 18 th 2012. The entire
revamping process was made possible thanks also to
the important supply of Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali
(ASI), completed within a record time of about 8
months.
The event was given much coverage in the British
press and hailed as a historic moment, bringing back
employment and the age-old tradition of steelmaking
to this part of the country.
At the opening ceremony, the blast furnace was
ignited by young Wills Waterfield (aged 11), the son of
Geoff Waterfield, the president of the committee of
local unions who died in 2011 and who was
considered the symbolic figure of all those who had
fought for the reopening of the Teesside steelworks.
History and Characteristics of the
Plant
The steelworks at Teesside dates back to the 19 th
century and it was at the forefront of the industrial
boom and the main historical events of the country. In
its heyday it employed as many as 6000 workers.
The steelworks was started up in 1917 to meet the
needs of the British war effort, and also played an
important role during the Second World War.
The steel produced at Teesside was used for
emblematic projects like the Sydney harbour bridge
The steelworks at Teesside Redcar (New Yorkshire, UK) is the second
largest in Europe (over 12 km²): built in 1917, it was a stronghold of
iron and steelmaking and of British industrial pride. In 2010, after a
period of crisis, the then owner Tata decided to mothball it, thus
causing anger and protests over the loss of 1600 jobs and of an
important piece of history. Sahaviriya Steel Industries then bought up
Redcar and declared its new start-up. Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali (ASI)
played an important role in revamping the plant, by fully modernizing
the automation systems of the blast furnace and of the Sinter and
BOS plants at the same steelworks in record time, and subsequently
obtaining an order for the complete supply of the new “Level 2”
automation system.
and the bridges over the rivers Tyne and Tees.
The possibility of nationalizing the steelworks site was
debated at length after the Second World War and the
Fig. 1 - Wills
Waterfield (aged 11)
places the gas
ignition nozzle
IndustrIal Plants - may 2012
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Steelmaking resumes at Redcar - Teesside in UK
Fig. 2 - First slab produced on April 18th 2012
Fig. 3 - Redcar Plant
Fig. 4 - Teesside Plant
IndustrIal Plants - may 2012
site was eventually partially nationalized.
The Teesside steelworks was made what it is today by
British Steel at the beginning of the 1970s and, by
1978, Redcar was the size of a giant steel mill, which
alone could produce more steel than that produced
by all the blast furnaces on the banks of the river Tees
over the past century. By 1997, the production of
steel in Teesside had reached an annual rate of 50
million, and the site ranked among the largest in the
world.
After a series of mergers and acquisitions, the site
was taken over by the Indian group Tata in 2007 and
the decision of the owners to close the plant in 2010
resulted in the loss of 1600 jobs and put at risk a
stronghold of the British steel industry. The decision
caused anger and indignation, but just as people
were beginning to give up hope, the site was taken
over by the Thai owners of the Sahaviriya Steel
Industries (SSI) group, who decided to re-employ the
same workers and technicians who had worked there
before.
Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali, among those in charge of
the modernization process, received an order to
revamp the electrics and the “Level 1” automation
units of the three main plants (the sinter and BOS
plants and the blast furnace). Their work also included
upgrading the main control room of the blast furnace,
where operators can now check and monitor the state
of the plant by means of the six large 62” monitors
mounted on the main wall and at the other 10 work
stations that replaced the old equipment. The team of
Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali is currently working shifts
around the clock, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week,

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Steelmaking resumes at Redcar - Teesside in UK
IndustrIal Plants - may 2012
destined for British rolling mills, which are expected to
enjoy steady growth thanks to the market of wind
towers.
Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali Services
According to the people in charge of the SSI UK
project, the result has been better than expected,
considering the many difficulties associated with the
very short time given for the re-ignition process as
well as with the conditions of the site, which has
been out of service for over two years, and the
customer’s need to completely reform the site’s
technical and management team.
Claudio Fapanni is graduated in Electronics Engineering at the
University of Genoa; he joined Ansaldo Industria in 1987. Since
1992, 1992, he was the leader of the ASI ASI Artics Project, Project, aimed at the
implementation of Artics - ASI’s ASI’s proprietaty real time integrated
control system. Since 2005, he is ASI’s Sales Director for Industrial
Systems.
Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali offers two separate
services – continuous customer assistance and
training of the personnel on site; the customer’s
technicians are involved in the development of the
project and they are given all the information required
to ensure efficient running of the site. In the case of
Sahaviriya Steel Industries, this method is made
possible also by a partnership going back many
years.
Claudio Andrea Gemme, the CEO of ASI, commented:
“It has given us great satisfaction to have provided
our technical assistance and helped breathe new life
into the site at Teesside and into an industrial area of
such great tradition and potential. Our engineers and
technicians were able to meet the very tight deadlines
and to tackle the many difficulties involved in this
process while meeting the full satisfaction of SSI, a
customer with whom ASI already has good relations,
as is also confirmed by this latest order.”
Gemme added: “Our company also places a strong
emphasis on service and revamping activities which
have to be all the more strategic within an economic
situation that leaves little room for new projects.”