Construction of the Shotton Wide Strip Mill

The Shotton wide strip mill for rolling steel sheet was the second mill of its type built in Britain, commissioned in 1939. The project that was executed rapidly with meticulous cost control against a deadline of impending war. Once commissioned, the mill produced a consistent flow of profits. The focus of the article is on the process of purchasing, building and commissioning of US rolling technology in a British context. Shotton gives a detailed insight into the costs of adopting American wide strip mill technology in Europe, its output and profitability. The role of the US plant supplier, Mesta, in transferring “know-how” as well as equipment is clear. So is the importance of a sophisticated local infrastructure in the UK which provided civil engineering, buildings and all the electrical equipment to time and cost. The “know-how” and noble equipment were American. But, in spending terms, over two-thirds of the engineering was British. It was not a straightforward transfer of American production techniques. War intervened, so John Summers and Sons had to learn the management techniques required to run a strip mill for themselves. Even here fortune smiled, as wartime sales controls gave them breathing space to develop new management methods for strip production.