Richard Lambert, director-general of the CBI, has visited Sheffield Forgemasters to see progress on a £23m manufacturing expansion programme that will enable the company to capitalise on growing global order books.
Lambert was visiting the 200-year-old Sheffield engineering company to view the development of a multi-million pound machine shop and a new 4,000 tonne press facility.
These developments include the building of a brand new 15,700 sq ft heavy machine shop initially incorporating five new large scale machine tools essential to increasing manufacture of the largest of Forgemasters’ cast and forged steel products.
Neil Maskrey, chief financial officer at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “Both these projects represent major capital investments for Forgemasters to enhance both productivity and efficiency which is critically essential for the next stage of the growth of the company.”
“The new machine shop will enable us to fully realise the capacity of the foundry, reduce timescales for completing jobs and increase the company’s flexibility to handle more contracts.”
Richard Lambert said: “It is hugely exciting to see such impressive technology and innovation being developed on this scale, here in the UK. The size and quality of the products being developed at Forgemasters is outstanding and this expansion programme builds on that by making a real investment for the future.”
Additional to the purchase of key equipment for the machine shop, valued at around £13m, Forgemasters has invested £1m in two 250 tonne cranes to feed the new machines.
Forgemasters’ expansion plans have also included a now operational £9m 4,000 tonne hydraulic forging press which complements the company’s 10,000 tonne press currently working at full capacity to fulfill orders.
