MORE jobs could be created to help the new owners of Sheerness steel mill meet their production targets.

Warren Hewitt, general manager of operations for Thamesteel, at the Brielle Way, said the Saudi Arabian-owned company aims to produce 570,000 tonnes in its first year, rising to a total of one million tonnes per year with future investment.

He added: “It would mean bringing in more staff, although at this stage I don’t know how many.”

The mill, which began operating again on March 10, currently employs 141 people in work such as maintenance and plant operations.

Mr Hewitt, formerly general manager with the plant’s ex-owners Allied Steel & Wire, said the plant produced 7,600 tonnes of billet steel last week.

The billets have been packed and stored on land owned by Medway Ports, ready for shipment to a rolling mill in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, where they will be turned into reinforcing bars for the construction industry.

The first shipment, due to sail on April 7, will comprise 20,000 tonnes, with plans to increase future shipments to 400,000 tonnes per voyage.

Mr Hewitt said of Thamesteel’s initial operations: “I am very pleased. We had a steep learning curve in the first week, but we are progressing.”

Mr Hewitt said staff employed at Thamesteel had previously worked for ASW. Many were members of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation union, he added.

Meanwhile, Celsa, the Spanish-based company which bought the casting machine and bar mill at the Brielle Way site as part its deal to buy some ASW assets, is removing the machinery which should be gone by early April.