Tata Steel to invest £8m and create 26 jobs at Scottish plant

TATA Steel is to pump £8 million into one of its two Scottish plants, boosting output by up to 50 per cent and creating 26 jobs.

The Indian steel giant is set to unveil the plans today for the Clydebridge plant in Cambuslang, Glasgow, which will increase its capability to produce high-strength steel plate.

A total of 100 workers work at the plant, which carries out two processes - quenching and tempering - that strengthen steel plate.

The latest investment by Tata Steel, which also owns the Dalzell plate rolling mill in Motherwell, will also allow for an expansion of Clydebridge's two furnaces.

In addition, two new gas-cutting machines and a new stamping and marking machine will be installed.

Jon Bolton, director of Tata Steel's Long Products Hub, told The Scotsman: "This investment supports our ambition to focus on making premium products for profitable markets.

"The Clydebridge plant specialises in producing difficult-to-make high strength steels used in some of the most challenging environments around the world.

"Increasing our capability there will help us to maximise the value of the steel plate we make in the UK and make this business more competitive and sustainable."

Tata's Scottish investment comes despite Bolton admitting that "steel demand is not back to what it was before the recession. Different sectors have recovered at different rates".

In August the company, formerly known as Corus in Britain, announced an 8m investment in a new heavy-duty press and other equipment at the Dalzell plant, which employs 230. That led to 80 jobs being created across the two Scottish sites.

Colin Timmins, works manager of the Clydebridge and Dalzell steelworks, said the most recent investment was a reward for the innovation and flexibility "a fantastic workforce" had shown.

"This is the second major investment we are celebrating in less than a year. It's the largest investment in the Clydebridge steelworks for many years and it will be welcomed by our workers, their families and the whole community," Timmins said.

Tata Steel operates in more than 50 European and Asian markets, with manufacturing plants in 26 countries.

The recruitment at Clydebridge will start in spring 2012, with the expanded capacity - rising to 3,200 tonnes per week - coming onstream in the summer of that year.

The steel processed at Clydebridge is made in Scunthorpe in north Lincolnshire, before being rolled at one of Tata's two UK plate mills at Dalzell and Scunthorpe.