Corus is to build a new world-class rail welding facility at its Scunthorpe steelworks.

The welding facility will be part of the new £130m rail service centre, which is currently under construction and will replace existing welding facilities at Corus’ Workington and Castleton sites.

The Scunthorpe site will be able to roll rail of up to 120m in length. Currently Castleton receives
36m rail from the Workington plant and welds it into 216m continuous welded strings.

Corus recently won a multi-million-pound contract to supply Network Rail with more than 200,000
tonnes of track a year.

The latest Non Destructive Testing equipment will be used at the Rail Service Centre; A 14 camera
cold profile gauge will check all dimensions of the rail along the full length. Surface quality will be
tested through a combination of eddy current devices and an automatic visual inspection system.
A number of cameras are linked to the Intelligent Image Analysis System, this identifies defects
such as score marks, scale and rolled in scrap. Magnets generate currents which flow over the rail
surface, this detects closed defects such as rolling laps and seams. 18 Ultrasonic probes will
check for internal defects.

It is anticipated that welding will cease at the Castleton site from 1 December 2006 and the new
facility will be operational from March 2007. Employees at the Castleton and Workington welding
sites will be offered transfer opportunities to the new welding facility at Scunthorpe (23 people are
employed at the Castleton site). Additional posts will be recruited locally.

A virtual video of the NDT equipment and further information can be found at:

http://investment.corusrail.com/en/to_see/virtual_tour/video_NDT