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On 29th April The Duke of Edinburgh officially opens the first phase of the post-war development scheme including a coke oven plant with two batteries of 44 ovens each, together with a by-product plant; a blast furnace with a 27 feet diameter hearth and all ancillary equipment; a new No. 3 Steelworks melting shop, with eight open hearth furnaces of 150 ton capacity each, and a new No.4 power station. His Royal Highness comments: “Technically, I suppose it is still Spring, and it may even be raining, but I think it is a perfect Summers day.”

For the first time, Shotton has the capacity to carry out all the processes for transforming iron ore into sheet steel; it is a fully integrated plant. The blast furnaces are the largest outside America. The No. 1 furnace produced molten iron for the first time in February and will soon be producing 7,000 tons a week. The first steel was produced in the new melting shop in August 1952 and the eight furnaces have an aggregate annual capacity of one million tons.