Tata Steel is supplying 50,000 tonnes of rail for the new Brittany-Loire Valley line between Le Mans and Rennes.
The steel will be manufactured in Scunthorpe, UK, before being rolled into rail at Tata Steel’s mill in Hayange, north-east France, for delivery from 2015.
The order value is around €50 million.
Jean-Luc Trottin, Eiffage Rail managing director, said: “One of the key reasons for awarding this Letter of Intent to Tata Steel was its commitment to deliver the rail when we need it, directly to the job site of Sablé and Laval.”
Gérard Glas, head of Tata Steel’s rail sector, said: “This is our second high-speed rail project secured in the last year and is a recognition of our world-class product and service.
“We will be supplying rails each measuring 108 metres long for this new high-speed line, giving passengers a smoother ride and reducing maintenance costs.
“We’ve been investing significantly in state-of-the-art technology at our Hayange rail mill – almost €50 million in three years – to enable us to make the highest quality rail and help us create a sustainable future for our 400 employees there.”
The Le Mans to Rennes rail project is one of the biggest in Europe and will be built by the French construction company Eiffage. The new line will be an extension of an existing high-speed link and will reduce travel times between Paris and Rennes by 37 minutes. The project is expected to create 10,000 jobs during the construction phase and will be completed in 2016.
