One of the North East's historic steel structures was flattened on Wednesday as redevelopment work continues at the Teessworks site. 

The Pulverised Coal Injection (PCI) plant, near the Redcar Blast Furnace, was brought down in an explosive demolition at 9am.

The huge facility was built in 2013 and blew finely powdered coal into the centre of the blast furnace to make the steelmaking process more efficient. It worked by reducing the amount of coke the blast furnace required.

This, in turn, meant more iron ore was put into the process which meant more liquid iron from the bottom of the furnace. This led to an increase in production from 8,500 tonnes per day to 10,500 tonnes.

It is also understood the £37million plant paid for itself in its first year of operation through efficiency savings.

Read more: LIVE - Explosion as former coal plant at Redcar Teesworks demolished

There was the potential to sell the PCI plant for parts - but this did not prove to be a viable option. When it came under the control of the South Tees Development Corporation, efforts were made to sell the plant, but these were ended due to limitations around its warranty and the plant’s insurance.

And ultimately, demolishing the plant through explosive demolition was judged to be the best solution.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “As ever, being able to build at Teesworks and move forward with investors means we have to knock things down first and this is our next demolition to deliver.

“We’re on track to bring down all major former steelworks sites before the end of this year – and the terrific progress being made has seen us unlock hundreds of acres of land for development.

“This is one of the biggest, most complex and condensed demolition programmes to ever take place in the UK. But rest assured, this effort will be rewarded as thousands of good-quality, well-paid jobs in the cleaner, safer and healthier industries of the future begin to rise from this rubble.” 

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