Tata Steel to Build Automotive Tubes Facility at Zwijndrecht
08/24/2011 - Tata Steel plans to build a new steel tubes manufacturing and processing facility at its Zwijndrecht plant in the Netherlands to serve the automotive sector. It is expected to be in operation by July 2012.
Tata Steel plans to build a new steel tube manufacturing and processing facility at its Zwijndrecht plant in the Netherlands to serve the automotive sector. It is expected to be in operation by July 2012.
The main elements of this expansion will be a heat treatment facility for the production of normalized precision tubes, and a cut-to-length line. The EUR 3 million investment will create 19 jobs. Steel used at the facility, including innovative advanced and ultrahigh strength steels, will come from Tata Steel’s plants in IJmuiden and Port Talbot.
Remco Blaauw, Managing Director of Tata Steel’s tubes business in Europe, said: “One of the main targets of the facility will be the supply of specialized chassis parts: normalized, cut-to-length, high-strength steel tubes for lightweight structural use in vehicles. The integrated supply chain this investment will create within Tata Steel will enhance our ability to serve automotive OEM customers.”
In 2004, Tata Steel’s European tubes business successfully entered the market for larger tubes for the automotive sector, making high-specification chassis tubes.
The Zwijndrecht investment will make Tata Steel a fully integrated tubes supplier for the automotive sector, controlling the complete chain from the production of steel to the production, normalizing, cutting, and packing of tubes.
