Hot Finish in Portugal
11 Jun 2004
In the UEFA European Football Championship, held this year in Portugal, the beautiful game found a series of equally attractive settings for its silky skills, thanks in no small measure to materials sourced and supply managed through the Corus International (CI) office in Lisbon.
In no fewer than five of the nine venues used for the competition, a well trained team of star players from CI and Corus Business Units - mainly Corus Tubes - hit the back of the net to score a succession of supply contracts for the new and remodelled stadia concerned.
Work began on the stadia projects the very day it was announced that Portugal had been chosen to host the competition. Rumours were rife. Nobody knew how many new venues there would be or where they might be located. Forecasting which of the established stadia would be refurbished presented a similar difficulty.
But, for Corus, this proved to be a watershed when its relatively low local profile in the market for hot finished tube products began to change. Through the proliferation of sports stadia projects created by the competition Corus was able to come back into contention by establishing itself as a supplier of hot finished structural hollow sections - now branded as Celsius.
Once the relevant architects for the new stadia had been appointed - Tomás Taveira for Alvalade, Leiria and Aveiro and António Monteiro for Coimbra, Manuel Salgado for Dragão and Hoksport for Benfica - Corus International got in touch with them and arranged to meet. With the support of Corus Tubes, CI's home country players were able to convince these important Portuguese designers of the benefits of steel construction and, in particular, the use of the Celsius product.
After this, it was a case of tracking developments on each project. The contracts were awarded to two contractors. With Corus products included, the tenders for steel fabrication came out and were awarded to a Lisbon and Porto-based fabricator.
The material was supplied by Corus through key CI customer A Da Costa Cabral - a stockist and the largest single product stockholder in Portugal. Each project was closely monitored and material delivered in large quantity shipments from the UK to the port of Aveiro.
Deliveries of the material, produced at the Corus Tubes mills in Corby, Hartlepool and Stockton started in May 2002 for the Alvalade Stadium and continued until early 2003. Sections and plates were rolled in Scunthorpe and Teesside. Throughout project operations the Lisbon office was heavily engaged and worked closely with the producing mills.
For football buffs, the advance score sheet for Corus may add an extra measure of interest to the games themselves. Look out for the Estädio do Dragão, Porto, the home of FC Porto where the opening ceremony and five games including a semi final took place. Completed in November 2003 with seating for 50,948 people the stadium, regarded by many as being the most beautiful in appearance uses 610 tonnes of Corus Tubes in its construction. At the 50,466 seat Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon which hosted the Spain v Portugal match, 842 tonnes of tubes were supplied, and at Leiria, 353 tonnes of tubes were delivered for the remodelling of the 29,869 seat Municipal Dr. Magalhães Pessoa Stadium. A smaller amount was used for the new 31,498 seat municipal stadium in Aveiro and Kalzip and sections were supplied for work at the home of Benfica - Estädio da Luz - in Lisbon.
