A  COMPANY that  produces  materials  used  in  the creation of steel is investing in a North-East plant to help drive its international expansion.

Steetley Dolomite, which specialises in supplying industrial dolomite to the steel making industry, is investing £1.2m in a heating system at its Thrislington Lime plantCounty Durham.

The Heatcatcher system helps recycle heat from the  rotary  kiln  to  produce  cheaper, low emission  power. It is forecast that this system will save enough energy to power 150 homes a year and will also be operational in September.

In addition the firm is investing £8.2m in its  plants  in  .
Nottinghamshire.

The  company believes the investments will help propel its turnover of £34m a year to over £40m by the end of 2014 and will drive exports  to  India  and the strong growth economies of South East Asia.

The company  exports  45 per cent  of the industrial dolomite it produces to overseas markets, which includes Europe, the Middle East and Australia, and expects the investment to tip the balance in favour of exports.

Steetley Dolomite, which began life over 50 years ago and was acquired from Lafarge’s  UK  lime  business  by  its  management  team  in 2004, employs  125  workers,  10 per cent  of whom are apprentices. The company plans to take on more apprentices on the back of this investment.

It secured a £5m  funding  package  from  HSBC’s  Nottinghamshire Commercial team to support the investment.

Nick  Holloway of HSBC, said: “This investment  will help drive Steetley Dolomite’s business forward and enable them to  compete  more  effectively  on  a  global  scale.  Steetley are demonstrating that even in a generally difficult economic environment there are  still  opportunities  for  UK  companies  and HSBC are look forward to working with Steetley over the coming years.”