Margam Steelworks, Port Talbot, 2003

Description

Steelmaking at the Port Talbot complex began with the Margam Iron and Steel Works, completed between 1923 and 1926 and then the Abbey Works, planned in 1947, opened in 1951 and fully operational by 1953. By 2000, the works was part of Corus, formerly the Steel Company of Wales, later British Steel. It is an integrated steelmaking site using imported ore. Together with Llanwern works, the plants produced up to 3.5 million tonnes of hot rolled steel strip per year. The output was taken by railway to Shotton for coating, to Trostre for tinplating, to Ebbw Vale for rolling and coating, or direct to the Midlands motor industry. By January 2008, 3600 employees were producing some 4.7 million tonnes of steel a year, rolling about 3 million tonnes at Abbey Works and sending the rest to Llanwern for rolling. The original four storey office block, dating from the early 1950s, still stands at National Grid Reference SS 78150 86920.