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Tata Steel’s Upgraded Rail Manufacturing Plant Opens in France

09/30/2011 - Tata Steel officially opened its Hayange rail production facility after a €35 million investment in a range of new manufacturing equipment and expansion of the plant, which can now produce 108-meter rails.

Tata Steel officially opened its rail production facility in northeast France after a €35 million investment in a range of new manufacturing equipment and expansion of the Hayange plant. Now it can produce 108-meter rails for the high-speed networks in France and other European railways; previously, the plant could produce rails up to 80 meters long.
 
The investment has boosted production capacity from 300,000 to 340,000 tonnes per year and has improved yield and quality at the facility.
 
Gérard Glas, Tata Steel’s Rail Sector Lead, said: “There has been a growth in demand in recent years for new high-speed rail lines in Europe. Our customers who are building these lines want to reduce their maintenance costs and give passengers a smoother ride. Using 108-meter-long rails helps them to achieve this.”
 
Tata Steel announced earlier this month that it had secured a major order to supply railway lines for a new high-speed track between the French cities of Tours and Bordeaux. The order from construction consortium COSEA is for 84,000 tonnes of high-quality rail for the 302-km-long (188-mi) South-Europe-Atlantique line.
 
In December 2009, French railway operator SNCF signed a €350 million contract with Tata Steel to buy rail for up to six years.
 
Paul Hodgson, Manager of the Hayange plant, said: “We set ourselves the goal of completing this upgrade in 18 months, which we have achieved. In fact, the project was not only on time, it was also on budget. All this took place without disrupting our ongoing manufacturing operations, and we have continued to supply high-quality rail to our existing customers throughout the upgrade.”
 
The European operations of Tata Steel (formerly known as Corus) comprise Europe's second-largest steel producer. With main steelmaking operations in the UK and the Netherlands, they supply steel and related services to the construction, automotive, packaging, material handling, and other demanding markets worldwide.
 
Tata Steel is one of the world’s top 10 steel producers. The combined group has an aggregate crude steel capacity of more than 28 million tonnes and approximately 80,000 employees across four continents.