Forgemasters presses on with £120m investment

Engineering business and Yorkshire Business Masters award winner, Sheffield Forgemasters, has invested over £120m in one of the biggest machine presses in the world to make forgings for the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarines.

The 13,000 tonne press is being shipped to its Sheffield base from Mitsubishi Nagasaki Machinery in Japan in a deal which was supported by a loan from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The news follows reports at the end of last year that the MoD was considering acquiring control of the company and follows an announcement in October that the business planned to cut 95 jobs.

Commenting on the new machinery, chief executive, David Bond said the business now had “decades” of nuclear defence work moving forward and that the investment was needed because its “ageing main forge press is unlikely to survive for that length of time”.

The 10,000 tonne press which is being replaced dates back over half a century to the 1950s. The press had originally been due to be replaced a decade ago but the government canceled an £80m loan which would have seen the firm purchase 15,000 tonne press, because it was described as “unaffordable”.

Bond added: “We have been examining ways of replacing [our press] and became aware of a nearly new 13,000 tonne press being sold in Japan, which we have moved quickly to purchase.

“Our long-term relationship with UK defence prime contractors and the MoD is based on the critical work we do within the submarine programme and it would be inappropriate to comment further on such commercial sensitivities.”

This support from government comes as the steel industry continues to face challenges with business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng assuring MPs the industry would not be “consigned to the history books” as fellow South Yorkshire firm, Liberty Steel faced problems.

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