A group of investors and construction companies have put forward plans to build a new town on the site of a Tata Steel plant at IJmuiden, near the coastal village of Wijk aan Zee in North Holland, broadcaster NOS reports.
Called Wijkerduin, it would have 40,000 homes on 750ha of land, with supporting commercial and industrial projects.
The plan is the brainchild of entrepreneurs Adriaan Kroon and Floris Busscher.
One little hitch …
There’s a problem, though: Tata’s Koninklijke Hoogovens plant in IJmuiden is still making steel.
However, the pair maintain that Tata will probably close the plant in the future.
One reason involves a public health concern: Dutch authorities are investigating a connection between the plant and lowered life expectancy in the area, which locals have been complaining about for some time. The company says its emissions are within legal limits.
Another is the economic difficulties that European steel makers find themselves in.
Earlier this month, Tata announced plans to cut about 1,600 jobs in the Netherlands, 20% of its workforce in the country, with the bulk of the redundancies to take place in the IJmuiden plant.
The Indian company’s Dutch division reported a loss of €556m in the last financial year, which it blamed on high energy prices and competition from China.
€12bn clean-up
Adriaan Kroon, who has worked as a management consultant, banker and investment manager, told NOS’ Nieuwsuur current affairs programme that he had assembled a team of architects, construction companies, and remediation companies for the project.
“We want to clean up the area and start a new chapter for IJmond, with housing and nature reserves,” he said.
It has been estimated that the cost of decontaminating the site could reach €12bn.
Kroon says the companies in his group are willing to find the money for this without relying on government help.
‘Beauty in ugliness’
One of the architects involved in the scheme is local firm MVRDV.
Gideon Maasland, one of its directors, told Nieuwsuur that the blast furnaces would be repurposed.
“You can see how those buildings can also be incredibly beautiful in their ugliness. And how they can shape the character of the new district, in combination with the greenery, the dunes, and the sea.”
Tata’s own plan
For its part, Tata Steel is negotiating with the government in the hope of obtaining billions of euros in state aid to help the plant switch to hydrogen.
A spokesperson told Nieuwsuur that Tata had no intention of closing the plant.
“We are implementing our own green steel plan on our site. This means that we will be producing cleaner steel and that we will thus contribute to future generations of Dutch people living in prosperity in a country with a strong economy.”
Kroon said Tata had made a great contribution to the Dutch economy, “but now we have to ask ourselves whether we want this in IJmuiden in the 21st century, or whether you do it somewhere else in Europe. And what can you bring back in terms of industry, businesses, and homes?”
He added that the industries that could replace steel-making included shipbuilding and microchips: “Things that we are good at in the Netherlands.”
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