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Company type | Limited company |
---|---|
Industry | Engineering |
Founded | 1805 |
Headquarters | Sheffield, England, UK |
Key people | Gary Nutter (CEO) Amy Grey (CFO) Gareth Barker (COO) |
Products | Steel forgings Steel castings Consultancy R&D |
Services | Steel Casting and Forgings |
Owner | UK Government Investments |
Parent | Ministry of Defence |
Website | www |
Sheffield Forgemasters is a heavy engineering firm located in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The company specialises in the production of large bespoke steel castings and forgings, as well as standard rolls, ingots and bars. The company was nationalised in July 2021, becoming wholly owned by the UK's Ministry of Defence.
Sheffield Forgemasters traces its origins to a 1750s blacksmith forge, and then Naylor Vickers and Co. founded by George Naylor and Edward Vickers, [1] the predecessor of Vickers Limited.[ citation needed ] Vickers built the River Don Works in 1865. [2] In 1983, the River Don Works, then part of state-owned British Steel, merged with Firth Brown Steels to create Sheffield Forgemasters. [3]
In the 1980s, Forgemasters manufactured components for the Iraqi Project Babylon "supergun", which it had believed were for a petrochemical refinery. The British investigation exonerated the company's directors, [4] and the incident became known as the Supergun affair.
In 1998, the company was divided and sold to American companies. Allegheny Teledyne bought the aerospace business. Atchison Casting Corp bought the River Don and Rolls businesses, [3] which retained the Sheffield Forgemasters name. Forgemasters was threatened with liquidation in 2002. [4] Atchison went bankrupt in 2003 and was acquired by KPS. [5] In 2005, Graham Honeyman led a successful effort to buy Forgemasters; Honeyman became the company's chief executive [6] and majority shareholder. [7]
Forgemasters experienced a work stoppage from severe flooding in the summer of 2007 when the works were inundated by the River Don. Three weeks after the event, repairs were ahead of schedule and the works were approaching full production. [8]
In the late-2000s, Forgemasters made a failed attempt to acquire a 15,000 tonne forging press for manufacturing ultra-large civil nuclear components. In March 2010, the company had secured £140 million in funding over two years, [9] including an £80 million loan from the British government. Plans to acquire the press were ultimately suspended. The government loan was cancelled in June 2010 with a change of government. [10] Forgemasters declined to apply for a new loan in 2011 as foreign competitors were building such presses, and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster had caused uncertainty in the civil nuclear market. [11]
Forgemasters suffered as the British steel industry declined in the early 2010s. It reported its first operating loss, of £9.4 million, since separating from Atchison in the 14 months leading to December 2014. In January 2016, the company announced plans to reduce its workforce from 800 to 700. [12] The company's financial health attracted attention due to its involvement in Britain's nuclear submarine programme. [7] [13]
In 2016, Forgemasters obtained a £30 million loan from US bank Wells Fargo. The loan was underwritten by nuclear submarine contractors BAE Systems, Babcock International and Rolls-Royce Marine Power, in an arrangement negotiated by the British Ministry of Defence (MoD); the intervention forestalled Chinese investment and control in the company. In March 2018, the arrangement was due to expire in July 2019; Sky News reported that the underwriters were seeking a replacement to Honeyman, possibly as a precondition for renewal. [7] In July 2018, Honeyman was replaced as chief executive by David Bond from BAE Systems. [6]
In December 2020, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Forgemasters were in preliminary talks for the nationalisation of the company. [13] In July 2021, the UK government announced that the MoD had launched an offer to take over the company for £2.56 million, and intended to invest a further £400 million over the next decade to support defence outputs. Investment will include a new heavy forge line and flood alleviation measures. The current senior management will run the company with two new non-executive directors. [14] [15] [16]
In March 2022 the government told SF to end its supply contract with Gazprom as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The company had already stopped any sales business with Russia by that date. [17]
In July 2024 newly-installed Secretary for Defence John Healey toured the SF plant with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles in the framework of the AUKUS partnership. [18]
In July 2024 the MoD announced an arrangement with SF to repair Ukrainian vehicles. [19]
The company specialises in forged and cast steel components for the defence, engineering, nuclear, offshore, petrochemical and steel processing industries worldwide.
The company received the American Society of Mechanical Engineers N-stamp accreditation for critical nuclear components in 1992, having produced major components for the Astute-class submarines and the civil nuclear industry, including Sizewell B, the UK's only pressurised water reactor. [20] [21] The accreditation lapsed some years later, with the lack of nuclear work. In 2023 the company was working to regain ASME status for heavy forgings and castings to the civil nuclear market, to position itself for anticipated expansion of civil nuclear capacity in the UK. [22]
Sheffield Forgemasters currently has the capacity for pouring the largest single casting (570 tonnes) in Europe. The two forging presses in use can exert a pressure of 4,500 tonnes and 10,000 tonnes on a billet of steel. The 4,500 tonne press was installed in 2010 to replace a 1,500 tonne press which dated back to 1897 and was originally steam powered, and after several upgrades became hydraulically operated.[ citation needed ]
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 1867, acquired more businesses, and began branching out into military hardware and shipbuilding.
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its southern suburbs were transferred from Derbyshire to the city council. It is the largest settlement in South Yorkshire.
GKN Ltd is a British multinational automotive and aerospace components business headquartered in Redditch, England. It is a long-running business known for many decades as Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds. It can trace its origins back to 1759 and the birth of the Industrial Revolution.
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Project Babylon was a space gun project commissioned by then Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. It involved building a series of "superguns". The design was based on research from the 1960s Project HARP led by the Canadian artillery expert Gerald Bull. There were most likely four different devices in the program.
Vickers plc was the remainder of Vickers-Armstrongs after the nationalisation of three of its four operating groups: aviation, shipbuilding and steel. It was purchased by Rolls-Royce plc in 1999, and the Vickers company name became defunct in 2003 as Rolls renamed the company Vinters Engineering.
Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited or HECL is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) in Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. HECL was established in the year 1958 as one of the largest Integrated Engineering Complex in India. It manufactures and supplies capital equipments & machineries and renders project execution required for core sector industries. It has complete manufacturing set up starting from casting & forging, fabrication, machining, assembly and testing - all at one location, Ranchi, backed by a design - engineering and technology team.
Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entire large ships, cars, tanks and torpedoes followed. Airships and aircraft were added, and Vickers jet airliners were to remain in production until 1965.
The Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) is a 150-acre (61 ha) manufacturing technology park in Waverley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. It was partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund, with Yorkshire Forward, and developed by Harworth Group, previously the property development arm of UK Coal, on reclaimed opencast coal mine land close to the site of the battle of Orgreave.
Steel, Peech and Tozer was a large steel maker with works situated at Ickles and Templeborough, in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.
Firth Brown Steels was initially formed in 1902, when Sheffield steelmakers John Brown & Company exchanged shares and came to a working agreement with neighbouring company Thomas Firth & Sons. In 1908 the two companies came together and established the Brown Firth Research Laboratories and it was here, in 1912, under the leadership of Harry Brearley they developed high chrome stainless steel. The companies continued under their own management until they formally merged in 1930 becoming Firth Brown Steels. The company is now part of Sheffield Forgemasters.
Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) is a research laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Located in Defence Research Complex, Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad. It is responsible for the development and manufacture of complex metals and materials required for modern warfare and weapon systems.
Burn Standard Company Limited (BSCL) is a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) of the Government of India. Headquartered in Howrah, India, BSCL is engaged mainly in railway wagon manufacturing under the Ministry of Railways. On 4 April 2018, Cabinet approves closure of loss making Burn Standard Company Limited. The company was formed with the merger of two companies – Burn & Company and Indian Standard Wagon, and was nationalised in 1975. In fiscal 2006, the company reported aggregated revenues of ₹1,373 million (US$16 million). Subsequently, the company with its two engineering units at Howrah and Burnpur came under the administrative control of Ministry of Railways in September 2010. The refractory unit at Salem, Tamil Nadu, was transferred to Steel Authority of India Limited.
The English Steel Corporation Ltd was a United Kingdom steel producer. The company was jointly owned by Cammell Laird and Vickers and was formed to bring together their basic steel making interests, principally in the Sheffield area but also including a plant in Openshaw, Manchester.
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