Liberty Steel plans to ramp up the capacity of its Rotherham mill in the UK and will extend the products range of its Thrybergh bar mill, the company said June 22. 

"It is our ambition to reach annual production of 1 million mt over the next 3-5 years and this starts with the upgrade of the Thrybergh Bar Mill, which will enable the production of GREENSTEEL rebar from September," a Liberty spokesman said.

Liberty acquired the Rotherham steel mill from Tata Steel three years ago when the business was producing just 225,000 mt/year and has since increased its production to 500,000 mt/year.

Liberty will be able to supply rebar sizes 25, 32, 40 and 50 mm in Grade B500C (BS4449) by September 2020 with further sizes being added before the year-end. Reinforcing bar will add to Liberty's range of UK products, which already includes long products, hot-rolled coils, plate, structural and precision tubes, merchant bar, line pipe and speciality alloy and remelt steels. Other products under development include powder metals.

Liberty said that with this new product strategy, it will be able to supply UK-produced GREENSTEEL to domestic infrastructure projects that will be vital to the UK's economic recovery following the pandemic.

"With the new developments at Thrybergh Bar Mill the business is well prepared to win a greater share of the construction market in the UK with a competitive GREENSTEEL rebar offering for projects such as HS2 which will lead to a significant boost in production at Rotherham," Liberty Steel's executive chairman Sanjeev Gupta said.

UK market demand for rebar amounts to around 1.2 million mt annually, worth over GBP500 million. At present, half of this demand is met by imports while growth in construction is expected from infrastructure projects such as the HS2 high-speed rail link.

NEWPORT

Liberty also said that has retained Italian equipment maker Danieli to develop its longer-term plans for a GREENSTEEL hub at Newport in south Wales, where the business already owns and operates a hot-rolled coil mill.

The new GREENSTEEL hub would see investment in Danieli's latest energy efficient Q-One Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) technology and other site upgrades to create a compact direct cast strip plant capable of producing 1.5-2 million mt/year of thin gauge HRC for the UK market.

The development is contingent on the completion of SIMEC Atlantis Energy's power station conversion project at the adjacent Uskmouth power station. The Uskmouth conversion project proposes to convert the existing coal-fired power plant located to burn waste-derived fuel pellets. The power station could feed the new development at Newport with competitive power, a key ingredient in Liberty's GREENSTEEL strategy. SAE's conversion project is the first in the world of its kind and is currently in an advanced state of conducting technical tests and planning approvals, the company said.

"By utilizing the abundance of steel scrap in the UK and harnessing the opportunity that the Uskmouth power plant development brings to generate power from waste derived fuel pellets, we can create a highly competitive and sustainable GREENSTEEL hub in Newport. These plans could reduce emissions from steel making by as much as 80-90% versus the blast furnace production route using coal," Gupta said.