Corus wins its first Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2006

21 Apr 2006

Corus Special Profiles, based at Skinningrove in the North East of England, is delighted to announce that it has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade 2006 for outstanding export achievement over the last three years. The business is recognised as a world leader in the manufacture of specially designed hot rolled special profiles and achieves an annual production of over 240,000 tonnes of these products, which are sold throughout the world.

Over £40 million has been invested at the Skinningrove plant since the 1990’s to enhance productivity, improve the environment and develop “best in class” manufacturing processes in order to achieve higher value added specifications and tolerances, and a broader product mix. This in turn has allowed the business to develop its reputation as a world leader within its niche markets in the steel industry. The business has achieved export growth of 87% over 3 years. Around 70% of Corus Special Profiles’ sales are exported, with North America being its largest market. The remainder, which is sold within the UK, is mostly further processed and resold into International markets.

John Arthur, Director Corus Special Profiles, commented “A key to our success has been the development of long-term relationships with our customers who are leading, world-class manufacturers in their industries, many of whom recognise Skinningrove as the “best in class” and preferred quality supplier. Recognition by the Queen’s Awards Office, further endorses this reputation for quality and service, which has been achieved by the dedication and commitment of the business’ very highly skilled employees who see the customer as the first priority and continuous improvement as the key to success. Their “can do” approach to challenging market conditions has played a large part in the development of our customer base. “ 

For information or photos contact:
Annanya Sarin, Corporate Relations
Tel:  020 7717 4532

Paul Lyons, Corus Special Profiles (local/trade media)
Tel: 01287 593137

www.queensawards.org.uk

Notes to Editors

Corus Special Profiles has received numerous other certifications and awards, including the R.O.S.P.A. Gold award for occupational safety in 2004 and 2005, the national JAPAC award for safety management in 2005, the “Investors in People Award” for five years running and the ISO 14001:2004 environmental accreditation, as well as being recognised by all of the key international quality assurance inspectorates.

Corus Special Profiles manufactures special shaped steel sections which are used to make components for bulldozers, excavators, fork lift trucks and applications in many other industries such as ship building, underground mining, aluminium smelting and materials handling. 

The business has a world market share of around 25% and is expanding its sales in Europe, North America and the Far East. Corus supplies around 95% of Caterpillar’s requirement for steel “track shoes” and “cutting edges” world-wide. Recently, the business has developed new products for the aluminium smelting industry, crane rails and new fork lift truck products. 

Recent projects include:

Earthmoving products: Earthmoving machines are normally associated with mining and infrastructure developments, but one of the more noteworthy recent applications has been the clear-ups after the devastation caused by the USA hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, and the earthquake in Pakistan. Without such machines, it is likely that many more lives would have been lost in these natural disasters.

Crane rails: Used in applications at port and warehouse developments. A recent example is the supply of 100 tonnes for use in the Maasvlakte Project in the Dutch Europort. Crane rails are supplied throughout the world, including Singapore, Dubai, Australia and China

Bulb Flats: Used as “plate stiffeners”, particularly for shipbuilding, including oil and gas transportation. Sometimes they are used to stiffen plates in bridges and oil/gas platforms.The biggest bridge building project has been the world famous Oresund Bridge which connects Denmark with Sweden, and used over 2,000 tonnes of bulb flats. In 2005, more than 2500 tonnes of bulb flats were supplied for the oil/gas platform development in the Caspian Sea – the Kasaghan Field. Due to the cold climate in this region a special impact resistant steel was developed, capable of operation at –40°C, the typical winter temperature in the Caspian sea.

Fork Lift trucks: A range of sections are used to make the mast assemblies for trucks. A very significant project has involved working with Linde in the UK, who recently launched a new revolutionary truck, the so-called X-Series reach truck. Technical personnel from Skinningrove have been working with the Linde engineers to develop the new sections needed for the mast assembly. This new truck has won the 2006 Fork Lift Truck Association awards for Ergonomic Design, and Design Achievement.

Mining industry products : “Top Hat” shaft guides are used in deep underground mines, particularly gold and platinum mines. Major projects we have supplied include the South Deep gold mine in South Africa which has the deepest “single drop” vertical shaft in the world at over 3000m, the Obuasi gold mine in Ghana, and the Sao Bento gold mine in Brazil. Our most recent success is for the new Impala Shaft 16 platinum mine in South Africa.

Aluminium smelting : Corus supplies cathode bars which are used to conduct electricity. To help reduce electricity costs during the smelting process, Corus is working with a number of smelters on new steel specifications which offer lower resistivity. Corus currently supplies smelters in Iceland, Norway, Netherlands, France and Germany, as well as Australia and the Middle East.

Corus Group Plc (LSE/AEX: CS; NYSE: CGA) is one of the world’s largest metal producers with annual turnover of over £10 billion and major operating facilities in the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, France, Norway and Belgium. Corus’ four divisions comprising Strip Products, Long Products, Distribution & Building Systems and Aluminium provide innovative solutions to the construction, automotive, rail, general engineering and packaging markets worldwide. Corus has 47,300 employees in over 40 countries and sales offices and service centres worldwide. Combining international expertise with local customer service, the Corus brand represents quality and strength.