«1955 1956 1957 »

Another four open hearth furnaces are under construction in the No.3 Steelworks, making it the largest melting shop of its kind in Europe, being 1,870 ft. long, 240 ft. wide and 138 ft. high to its ridge. All 12 furnaces are now of 240 ton capacity.

The furnaces are of the basic, fixed open hearth type, common at the time in America and at other British works, producing wide strip. Firing of the scrap and molten iron charge is by a mixture of coke oven gas and tar, and the most up-to-date automatic control equipment has been installed.

A continuous working week to avoid regular weekend shutdowns is introduced, thermal performance records having shown that the practice offers great advantages.

The No.3 open hearth melting shop at Shotton quickly achieves its new steel making target of 1.5 million tons and a new target of two million tons is set.