After a quick safety briefing at the Visitor Centre, we were kitted out in safety gear (PPE) from glasses to high-visibility jackets and made our way via coach to the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) plant, passing through the giant buildings and railway network. On the way we passed huge stockpiles of raw materials, monster machinery, torpedo ladles and witnessed molten iron being tapped from the Blast Furnace.

After a short stair climb to the furnace floor, to gain the best vantage point of steel production, we witnessed the charging and pouring of the steel from the blast furnace. This 1600 degree Celsius process transforms molten iron into steel. We then walked the high steel gantries of the BOS and the Continuous Slab Caster to see the fascinating process of pouring molten steel into casting machines up close. From here it was back on the bus to the Hot Strip Mill. At the Hot Strip Mill, steel slabs were reheated and rolled into coils in a noisy, action-packed process to create coils of sheet steel up to one kilometre long, the final step in the process and our tour.