- Port Talbot Steelworks
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Port Talbot Steelworks
Port Talbot Steelworks is an integrated steel production plant in Port Talbot, Wales capable of producing nearly 5 million tonnes of steel slab per annum. The majority of the slab is rolled on-site at Port Talbot and at the Newport Llanwern site to make a variety of steel strip products. The remainder is processed at other Tata Steel plants or sold in slab form. The works covers a large area of land which dominates the south of the town with the blast furnaces and steel production plant buildings being major landmarks visible from both the M4 motorway and the South Wales Main Line when passing through the town. Enough steel is produced at the site to produce 400 standard food cans per second.
Contents
History
The site at Margam is made up of a number of plants across a large site, developed since 1901.
Port Talbot steelworks
The original works were built by Gilbertson, and situated south of Port Talbot railway station. Constructed in 1901-5, the works was named after Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot of Margam Castle, the principal sponsor of the developments at Port Talbot docks, which had opened in 1837.
Closed in 1961, the site was demolished in 1963. The General Offices now house Port Talbot magistrates' court, but the rest of the site is an industrial estate.[1]
Margam Steelworks
Steelmaking at the Port Talbot complex began with the Margam Iron and Steel Works, completed in 1923/6.
Abbey works
Abbey WorksAbbey Works was planned in 1947, but today is correctly termed Tata Steel Strip Products UK Port Talbot Works. Several steel manufacturers in South Wales pooled their resources to form the Steel Company of Wales, to construct a modern integrated steelworks on a site then owned by Guest, Keen and Baldwins. However, political manoeuvring led to tinplate production being retained in its original heartland further west, at two new works in Trostre and Felindre. Opened in 1951, it was fully operational by 1953.[2][3]
At the time of peak employment in the 1960s, the Abbey Works was Europe's largest steelworks and the largest single employer in Wales, with a labour force of 18,000.[4]
In 1967, The Steel Company of Wales was absorbed into British Steel, which was later privatised and merged to form Corus Group. Tata Group agreed to purchase all Corus' ordinary shares in March 2007, and the deal was concluded in April 2007. In 2010 it was announced that Corus was to be rebranded to the group name of Tata Steel Europe.
Today
EWS Class 66 heads towards Margam Knuckle Yard with a load of steel emptiesAn integrated steelmaking site using imported ore and coal, together with Llanwern steelworks, the plants produced up to 3.5 million tonnes of hot rolled and cold rolled annealed in steel coils per annum, for a variety of different end uses. Output is taken by rail from Margam Knuckle Yard to: Shotton for coating; Trostre for tinplating; Ebbw Vale for rolling and coating; or direct to the Midlands motor industry and domestic goods.
On the extensive steelworks site, fume and water vapour from, predominantly, Coke Oven Quench towers, Sinter Plant Stacks and cooling towers can be observed from many miles away together with ignited by-product gasses from various production units. When exiting Port Talbot in an easterly direction, the Abbey Works steel products plant (which is over 1 mile (1.6 km) long) is clearly visible. The smell of sulphur often hangs over this part of the town.
Top Gear have used the Port Talbot steelworks a number of times to film. Director Terry Gilliam cited the Port Talbot Steelworks as a major initial influence in developing the movie Brazil.
Notes
- ^ "Port Talbot steelworks". coflein.gov.uk. http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/409888/details/PORT+TALBOT+STEEL+WORKS,+PORT+TALBOT/. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
- ^ "ABBEY WORKS, MARGAM STEEL WORKS, MARGAM". coflein.gov.uk. http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/91392/details/ABBEY+WORKS,+MARGAM+STEEL+WORKS,+MARGAM/. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
- ^ Port Talbot Historical Society. "Time Line 20th C". http://beehive.thisissouthwales.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=SiteHome&ID=5906&PageID=72584. Retrieved 2010-08-18.
- ^ The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6.
External links
Categories:- Corus Group
- Buildings and structures in Neath Port Talbot
- Ironworks and steelworks in Wales
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