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| 04 Mar 2008 | |
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| Corus Construction & Industrial has beaten off international competition to win a contract to supply steel for the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers, it has been announced today. Corus will supply more than 80,000 tonnes of structural steel for the carriers which will be the biggest and most powerful surface warships ever constructed for the Royal Navy. Around 90 per cent of the steel will be manufactured at Corus’ operations in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, Dalzell, near Motherwell, in Scotland, and Skinningrove in Teesside. The £3.8bn state-of-the-art carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are due to enter service in 2014 and 2016, respectively. Corus will start rolling steel for the aircraft carriers later this year. Corus’ Scunthorpe and Dalzell steelworkers will produce plate steel for the ships’ hulls, while the company’s employees in Skinningrove will manufacture bulb flats - steel used to stiffen the construction. Corus is renowned for supplying high quality steel to the shipbuilding industry. The company also produces steel used in the world’s largest cargo ships. Richard White, Corus general manager sales and marketing for sections and plates, said: "We secured this prestigious contract in the face of competition from a number of steel producers. It’s great news for Corus. "This success confirms our ability to produce world-class steel and is a welcome boost to Corus’ three UK sites involved in the manufacturing programme." The Ministry of Defence confirmed its order for two new carriers last year to replace three smaller carriers. The new carriers will be built in sections and assembled at the Rosyth dockyard in Fife. Shipyards in Clyde, Portsmouth and Barrow will all be involved in constructing the carriers’ sections. Each carrier will be 284 metres long and 56m tall - 6m taller than Nelson’s Column. They will each carry 40 aircraft. The flight deck area is equivalent to 49 tennis courts or three football pitches. Corus has been working closely with Dent Steel Services which has won a separate contract to supply warehousing, shot-blasting and painting services. ENDS Corus is Europe's second largest steel producer with annual revenues of over £11 billion and a crude steel production of about 20 million tonnes. With main steelmaking operations primarily in the UK and the Netherlands, Corus provides innovative solutions to the construction, automotive, packaging, mechanical engineering and other markets worldwide. Corus is a subsidiary of Tata Steel, the world's sixth largest steel producer. With the recent acquisition of Corus, the combined enterprise has an aggregate crude steel production capacity of around 28.1 million tonnes with approximately 82,700 employees across four continents. Annanya Sarin | |
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