An upturn in the UK steel industry has contributed to a 73% increase in orders over the last 12 months for the industrial division of Wolseley, specialist supplier of industrial valves, pipe and fittings via annual supply contracts.

These impressive results come at a time when a recent article from S&P Global Platts, has suggested 2017 could be a significant turning point for the UK steel industry with a combination of anti-dumping measures, major mergers and a weakened euro combining to go a long way to solving its decline in global market share.

This has contributed to Wolseley doubling the number of quotes being produced as well as the number of product lines it is processing per month for customers in this sector.

This growth has also allowed the business to expand the team with four new appointments this year. Andy Clark was recently appointed as an onsite application engineer for a large customer in Scunthorpe. He is from a steel making background and his job is to work closely with the various site engineers, stores, procurement managers and contractors to help them find the right product for every application delivering cost savings where possible. Chris Thomas has also been appointed as an application engineer for a large customer in South Wales and there have been two appointments at Wolseley’s facility in Fareham - Dean Best as applications engineer and Laura Blackman as sales advisor.

Gary Wilson, Regional Sales Manager – Industrial at Wolseley said: “Over the last two or three years the steel industry has become fragmented. However, these problems are starting to iron out and we’re seeing an influx of large project work rather than just maintenance. We’re in a unique position to offer our industrial customers a total supply solution from helping them to identify the right product for their application, through to delivery on-site and technical after-sales support. This means we can meet the most demanding requirements which is why we’re starting to see this growth.”

Wolseley is a specialist merchant in the process industry and supplies process valves and fittings as part of large contracts to key players in the steel industry as well as pharmaceutical, chemical, petro-chemical-marine, food and beverage, oil and gas, fire protection, waste and water, building services and power generation industries.