The British 色猫直播al Steelwork Association (BCSA) has escalated its campaign for fairer procurement on publicly funded infrastructure after it emerged that Net Zero Teesside is close to awarding a 10,000-tonne structural steelwork package to a Chinese fabricator, despite substantial UK taxpayer backing and the availability of equivalent domestic capacity.
The 拢30m contract package would, the BCSA says, keep about 600 skilled British fabrication workers in employment for a full year. The body hears that the work now appears likely to be offshored, even though UK fabricators have the plant, labour, certification and capacity to deliver it immediately and at a time when construction demand is at its weakest since the early 1990s.
One of the BCSA鈥檚 principle concerns is the import of ready-fabricated steelwork, which bypasses not only domestic steelmaking and the high-value fabrication processes undertaken by British firms. Every imported tonne displaces jobs for welders, platers, designers and project managers, and removes business from local coating, logistics and engineering supply chains, the association says.
The BCSA has warned that the decision would unnecessarily offshore high-value work from the former Redcar steelworks site itself, undermining government commitments to support domestic growth, level up industrial regions and strengthen sovereign capability. Chinese steel is heavily state subsidised, distorting global markets and making it impossible for UK firms to compete on a like-for-like basis without government support, it is claimed.
BCSA has also highlighted the carbon implications of transporting thousands of tonnes of fabricated steelwork from China, pumping out an estimated 4,000 tonnes of avoidable CO鈧�, contradicting the environmental intent of a project marketed as a climate solution. Using UK fabricators would avoid a significant proportion of these emissions and reinforce the integrity of the scheme, it argues.
Net Zero Teesside is billed as the world鈥檚 first gas-fired power station with carbon capture and storage. It is owned by OGCI Climate Investments, an alliance of oil companies, and developed by a consortium led by BP (operator), alongside Eni, Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies. The power station component (NZT Power) is a joint venture primarily between BP and Norwegian state energy company Equinor.
Technip Energies and GE Vernova consortium, including Balfour Beatty as the construction partner and Shell as the technology licensor, is responsible for the onshore power, capture and compression aspects of the project. It is Technip that is believed to be looking to Chinese steelwork fabricators.
BCSA chief executive Jonathan Clemens said: 鈥淯K fabricators have the capability, the skills and the capacity to deliver this work now. Yet a publicly backed national project is set to overlook them in favour of heavily subsidised overseas imports.
鈥淚f we are serious about protecting sovereign capability, supporting skilled employment and maintaining a resilient domestic supply chain, procurement decisions like this must be reviewed. The government has set out a framework in the Procurement Act for public buyers to engage UK SMEs more actively. This is exactly the kind of contract where that commitment should be upheld.鈥�
Earlier this year, the BCSA coordinated an open letter to the secretary of state for business and trade, signed by more than 30 executives from across the constructional steelwork sector, calling for a 鈥渘ew deal for constructional steel鈥� and reform of public infrastructure procurement.
Clemens added: 鈥淪teelmaking does not stand alone; it relies on a robust UK fabrication sector. If major publicly funded projects repeatedly bypass capable British firms, the whole ecosystem is put at risk. Our members stand ready to deliver, and we will continue to press for a procurement system that recognises and values that capability.鈥�
A spokesman for NZT told The Times newspaper last month 聽that it was on track to hand more than 50% of its construction contracts to UK companies.
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