British Steel's Turkish Buyer Eyes Production Boost at Scunthorpe Plant

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Oyak- the Turkish military fund, who was selected as the preferred bidder to buy troubled British Steel assets, announced that it aims to drive productivity at the mills, which in turn may lead to loss of several hundreds of jobs. The immediate focus would be to boost mill output, the company said.

Toker Özcan, Head, Oyak Mining Metallurgy Group noted that the productivity at the company’s Scunthorpe plant was significantly low when compared with other European steel producers. As part of its efforts to boost the output, it intends to raise the primary steel production at the plant to 3 million tonnes per annum. The modernization of the plant is expected to boost the production to nearly 3.2 million tonnes per annum, he said. It must be noted that the plant had produced 2.8 million tonnes of primary steel in 2018.

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The Turkish company also sought investment by UK taxpayers in converting the plant to run on hydrogen, thereby reducing carbon footprint. The company intends to convert at least 50% of the capacity to run on gas. Later, with the co-operation of the UK government, it intends to convert from gas to hydrogen. The hydrogen initiative, which requires significant investment, has not yet been implemented on a commercial basis.

Meantime, British Steel’s Turkish rescuer plans to move Chemson-a chemicals factory owned by it, from Tyneside to Europe. The decision will lead to loss of jobs for 64 people.

Last week, Ataer Holding- a subsidiary of the Turkish state military retirement fund Oyak had entered into an exclusivity agreement to buy British steel.