Winning combination (From The Northern Echo)
The North-East has worked its way into the heart of a man poised to save its steelmaking industry as Business Editor Owen McAteer discovered when he met Win Viriyaprapaikit.
AS steelworkers marched to save jobs, they would have been unaware that their campaign had caught the imagination of a potential saviour thousands of miles away.
Win Viriyaprapaikit, president of Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), the Thai company proposing to buy Corus Teesside Cast Products (TCP), who has been in the region this week has already spoken of the passion of the region’s steelworkers being “second to none”.
The 40-year-old, responsible for the Thai steel firm founded by his father and aunt 55 years ago, first encountered that passion last year when 5,000 steelworkers and supporters marched through Redcar to call for the factory to be saved.
Mr Viriyaprapaikit said: “It was July last year, I read the news on the internet back home and I saw the flags and the marches, the Save our Steel campaign, and I thought it was very apparent that the whole town was really behind this.
“I was quietly reading this at home but, with a lot of interest at the time, I never thought we could be part of this.”
He said the marches clearly demonstrated how much pride the people of Teesside took in their steel industry, which was under threat after an international consortium pulled out of a ten-year deal to buy its steel.
Mr Viriyaprapaikit said: “After these marches got our interest, they didn’t really have to explain to me how they feel because the actions speak louder than words and throughout the year I was seeing these marches.”
The same month, a delegation from Corus TCP visited Mr Viriyaprapaikit in Bangkok to strike a deal for steel slabs, of which his company bought 400,000 tonnes, at a time the plant was desperately trying to secure orders.
He said: “We became acquainted with the management, we came to be confident of the quality, the production system and, of course, the people behind it, so we have confidence in the plant and the people running it.
“It makes the job of due dilligence much easier than going in somewhere without such knowledge.”
SSI is a family business and what becomes clear from talking to the married father-of-two is that the quality and attitudes of people he is dealing with is an integral part of any deal, hence his fascination with the steel marches.
He said: “Teesside is passionate about steel and I have become passionate about Teesside, what we can do here will be a lot more because of the goodwill and the support of the community.
“This 150 years of history is actually the history of steelmaking itself. This must be one of the rare places with the full history. We feel really fortunate to be part of this.
An example of the importance in which people’s feelings are held was the appointment last month of David Reid, as interim managing director.
Until September last year, Mr Reid had spent five years as supply chain director at TCP and was one of the steelworkers who marched through Redcar. He is also steel expert but, crucially, he also had a relationship with SSI going back 25 years.
Mr Viriyaprapaikit said: “When the delegation came to see us last July they had a chance to meet my father and my father called him old friend. It didn’t ring a bell at the time, it was only a few weeks ago that I proposed to my father that Dave would be the perfect person to lead this and I asked him what he meant by old friend and he said he had known David for 25 years.
“I think Dave Reid is a person of integrity, that is why all of us feel so much trust in him and I hope this is the right choice not just for us but for Teesside as well.”
Despite rumours of a potential deal with SSI surfacing in May it was only in August that it was finally confirmed with SSI and Corus signing a memorandum of understanding paving the way for a £320m deal and steelmaking restarting at the plant, near Redcar, east Cleveland, by early next year.
It transpired that the two companies had been in discussions for about a year, with Mr Viriyaprapaikit visiting TCP last October.
More than 1,000 employees have left the plant since February’s mothballing, with Mr Viriyaprapaikit confirming at the memorandum of understanding signing that the 700 steelworkers remaining at the factory would be kept on should a deal progress.
Yesterday, Mr Viriyaprapaikit spoke of his desire to create many more jobs at the plant.
He said: “It would be in terms of hundreds more jobs in addition to the 700 people we will offer the opportunity to transfer over.
“I think one of the things we would like to do is have this knowledge of all these skilled people passed on to the next generation.
“That is one thing I would like to do if we get to succeed in acquiring the plant.”
ONE reason he may speak so passionately about the region is that he happily admits that through the course of a number of private visits over the past year he has fallen in love with it. On his last visit he took home 30 pictures of the North-East, taken by professional photographers and many of those are now in the company’s boardroom in Thailand.
He said: “Our board of directors came in and they were delighted because they didn’t realise in addition to buying a steel plant we got all this beauty coming along as well.”
What has struck Mr Viriyaprapaikit on his journey is the genuine warmth and the welcome the people give visitors.
What is sometimes forgotten in the excitement of having found a potential saviour is that the deal to buy TCP is in itself an exciting move for Mr Viriyaprapaikit and SSI, which is known in Thailand’s steel industry for its pioneering spirit.
TCP produces 3.5 million tonnes of steel slab a year and SSI requires four million tonnes.
In addition, both facilities are on deepwater ports, a perfect match in Mr Viriyaprapaikit’s view. He said: “It will be a crucial part of our business, it gives us the platform for where we can grow. It is a very exciting time.”
There is still some work to be done on the final deal but Mr Viriyaprapaikit added: “We hope we can get to the finish line as soon as we can.”
AS steelworkers marched to save jobs, they would have been unaware that their campaign had caught the imagination of a potential saviour thousands of miles away.
Win Viriyaprapaikit, president of Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), the Thai company proposing to buy Corus Teesside Cast Products (TCP), who has been in the region this week has already spoken of the passion of the region’s steelworkers being “second to none”.
The 40-year-old, responsible for the Thai steel firm founded by his father and aunt 55 years ago, first encountered that passion last year when 5,000 steelworkers and supporters marched through Redcar to call for the factory to be saved.
Mr Viriyaprapaikit said: “It was July last year, I read the news on the internet back home and I saw the flags and the marches, the Save our Steel campaign, and I thought it was very apparent that the whole town was really behind this.
“I was quietly reading this at home but, with a lot of interest at the time, I never thought we could be part of this.”
He said the marches clearly demonstrated how much pride the people of Teesside took in their steel industry, which was under threat after an international consortium pulled out of a ten-year deal to buy its steel.
Mr Viriyaprapaikit said: “After these marches got our interest, they didn’t really have to explain to me how they feel because the actions speak louder than words and throughout the year I was seeing these marches.”
The same month, a delegation from Corus TCP visited Mr Viriyaprapaikit in Bangkok to strike a deal for steel slabs, of which his company bought 400,000 tonnes, at a time the plant was desperately trying to secure orders.
He said: “We became acquainted with the management, we came to be confident of the quality, the production system and, of course, the people behind it, so we have confidence in the plant and the people running it.
“It makes the job of due dilligence much easier than going in somewhere without such knowledge.”
SSI is a family business and what becomes clear from talking to the married father-of-two is that the quality and attitudes of people he is dealing with is an integral part of any deal, hence his fascination with the steel marches.
He said: “Teesside is passionate about steel and I have become passionate about Teesside, what we can do here will be a lot more because of the goodwill and the support of the community.
“This 150 years of history is actually the history of steelmaking itself. This must be one of the rare places with the full history. We feel really fortunate to be part of this.
An example of the importance in which people’s feelings are held was the appointment last month of David Reid, as interim managing director.
Until September last year, Mr Reid had spent five years as supply chain director at TCP and was one of the steelworkers who marched through Redcar. He is also steel expert but, crucially, he also had a relationship with SSI going back 25 years.
Mr Viriyaprapaikit said: “When the delegation came to see us last July they had a chance to meet my father and my father called him old friend. It didn’t ring a bell at the time, it was only a few weeks ago that I proposed to my father that Dave would be the perfect person to lead this and I asked him what he meant by old friend and he said he had known David for 25 years.
“I think Dave Reid is a person of integrity, that is why all of us feel so much trust in him and I hope this is the right choice not just for us but for Teesside as well.”
Despite rumours of a potential deal with SSI surfacing in May it was only in August that it was finally confirmed with SSI and Corus signing a memorandum of understanding paving the way for a £320m deal and steelmaking restarting at the plant, near Redcar, east Cleveland, by early next year.
It transpired that the two companies had been in discussions for about a year, with Mr Viriyaprapaikit visiting TCP last October.
More than 1,000 employees have left the plant since February’s mothballing, with Mr Viriyaprapaikit confirming at the memorandum of understanding signing that the 700 steelworkers remaining at the factory would be kept on should a deal progress.
Yesterday, Mr Viriyaprapaikit spoke of his desire to create many more jobs at the plant.
He said: “It would be in terms of hundreds more jobs in addition to the 700 people we will offer the opportunity to transfer over.
“I think one of the things we would like to do is have this knowledge of all these skilled people passed on to the next generation.
“That is one thing I would like to do if we get to succeed in acquiring the plant.”
ONE reason he may speak so passionately about the region is that he happily admits that through the course of a number of private visits over the past year he has fallen in love with it. On his last visit he took home 30 pictures of the North-East, taken by professional photographers and many of those are now in the company’s boardroom in Thailand.
He said: “Our board of directors came in and they were delighted because they didn’t realise in addition to buying a steel plant we got all this beauty coming along as well.”
What has struck Mr Viriyaprapaikit on his journey is the genuine warmth and the welcome the people give visitors.
What is sometimes forgotten in the excitement of having found a potential saviour is that the deal to buy TCP is in itself an exciting move for Mr Viriyaprapaikit and SSI, which is known in Thailand’s steel industry for its pioneering spirit.
TCP produces 3.5 million tonnes of steel slab a year and SSI requires four million tonnes.
In addition, both facilities are on deepwater ports, a perfect match in Mr Viriyaprapaikit’s view. He said: “It will be a crucial part of our business, it gives us the platform for where we can grow. It is a very exciting time.”
There is still some work to be done on the final deal but Mr Viriyaprapaikit added: “We hope we can get to the finish line as soon as we can.”
