We'd like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Despite the global challenges we’ve all faced over the year, we’re very proud of the achievements of our business and people. As a reminder, here are just some of 2022’s notable successes…
We were happy to share the news tophats rolled at Skinningrove were destined to help extend the Malartic gold mine in Canada. And this wasn’t the only success of the year for our Special Profiles business – the largest track shoe we’ve ever made is helping transform the performance of some of the world’s biggest bulldozers and we’ve rolled the largest crane rail ever too! To top off the year, Special Profiles was awarded top supplier status for the 10th consecutive year from key customer Caterpillar.
It was great to see construction progressing on the National Robotarium in Edinburgh where our sections have been used for the steel frame. There were celebrations at our Rail business as we were awarded preferred supplier status by Deutsche Bahn, Europe’s largest purchaser of rail. This was quickly followed by an extension of our supply contract to Network Rail.
The year also saw a welcome return to face-to-face exhibitions, which included wire, InnoTrans and bauma. We enjoyed updating customers on our latest developments including the launch of our extended Advance® structural sections range. It was also a great opportunity to share our plans to produce low-embedded carbon steel outlined in our Low-Carbon Roadmap pocket guide.
And we continue to invest to support our long-term strategy. This has included £48 million towards the installation of a new billet caster at our Scunthorpe site that will mean we can cast billets of an even higher standard and expand our customer offering. Investments are also underway in our Wire Rod business to extend our product range and enhance customer service.
Along with the nation, we were saddened to learn of Queen Elizabeth's death in September. We were honoured to have hosted Her Majesty on several occasions across our sites and her passing was deeply felt by many.
Finally, we’d like to thank you – our employees, customers, suppliers and all our stakeholders – for your ongoing support during the past year. Season's greetings to you all!