«1945 1946 1947 »

Plans are drawn up for a two-stage development to make Shotton a fully-integrated plant by the installation of coke ovens, two blast furnaces, a new open hearth steelmaking plant and new No.4 power station. The expansion programme is to be spread over six/seven years and a budget of £54 million is set. The developments also include an 80 in. wide single stand cold reduction mill, an additional stand on the three-stand tandem cold reduction mill, extra annealing plant, cut up lines and finishing units, all considered necessary to keep the works ahead in meeting the developing demands of sheet steel consuming industries.

Modernisation of the open hearth furnaces in the No. 2 Steelworks, to make steel more suitable for rolling into strip, continues with the introduction of roof temperature control and the conversion of four furnaces to oil firing.

The last of the original sheet rolling mills close down. The original hand mills had two sets of rolls ie 2- high. The later 3-high mechanised sheet mill, the forerunner of the more modern 4-high mill, had an output of about 350 tons a week with sheets being rolled in pairs after coming through a heating furnace.