They are relighting the steel furnace at Teeside! Although culturally I probably know more about Thailand than Teeside (though have not been to either!) I remember these things being closed down across the North and the devastation the loss of jobs caused.
Steel might be boring heavy stuff but we use a lot in all our gadgets particularly PC cases and housings and vehicles…
Although at present all the steel is going back on the boat to Thailand some will eventually be used here (and as transport costs grow manufacturing returns to England). The chaps lighting the furnace again are all the original English dudes from the 70s raaa)
The process to restart the blast furnace at the SSI plant has been a lengthy one after it cooled down following the plant being mothballed.
The furnace itself is the second biggest in Europe and is as tall as St Paul’s Cathedral. Its core – called the hearth – is about 14m (46ft) in diameter and is where coke and iron ore are combined to create molten metal.
But before this can happen, the furnace has to be “relit”. This is done by using four gas stoves, which have been heating up since February to reach a temperature of about 1,200 C (2,192 F).
When this is reached, a lance with a naked gas flame is inserted into the hearth to ignite the super-heated air – creating the “blast” in blast furnace.
Once the iron is molten it is then transported in 300 tonne containers about 6km by rail to a processing plant, where steel slabs are created.
BBC News – Blast furnace at former Corus Redcar steel plant to be relit
