Two London skyscrapers are to be built using steel from the plant in Scunthorpe that was salvaged from the collapse of Tata Steel this summer. William Hare, the structural steel contractor and engineer, has signed a deal with the revived British Steel, the name given to the Tata plant after it was bought by Greybull Capital for £1 in June.
As a result, Scunthorpe steel will be used in the 36-storey “Scalpel” skyscraper and the 40-storey 100 Bishopsgate office tower, both in the City of London. The biggest sections of steel from Scunthorpe are rolled at British Steel’s Teesside Beam Mill. Teesside has a near century-long tradition of providing steel for big structures, stretching back to the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the 1920s.
More recent projects that have used steel from Scunthorpe and Teesside include The Shard and “Walkie-Talkie” skyscrapers in London and the city’s Olympic Stadium. William Hare, a family-run company based in Manchester, dates from the 1880s. Terms of the partnership, which continues a relationship between the northern steelmakers and William Hare, were not disclosed.
The deal is a rare bright spot for UK steelmaking, which was plunged into crisis last year after global oversupply and a flood of Chinese exports made steel cheaper than at any other point in the past decade. This contributed to the closure of the Redcar steelworks in Teesside with the loss of 3,000 direct and contractor jobs when the works’ Thai owner, SSI UK, collapsed into insolvency. Related article Tale of two steel towns: How Redcar and Qianan are faring as furnaces sit idle Ripples from global steel downturn wash up on UK shores and in China The country’s biggest steelmaker, Tata Steel UK, was then put up for sale by its Indian parent in March, throwing thousands of jobs into doubt.
The use of British-made steel in buildings such as the Scalpel and 100 Bishopsgate was an affirmation of the sector’s economic potential, said British Steel. “They are stunning examples of modern architecture and demonstrate how our range of steel construction products can help shape the buildings of tomorrow,” said Peter Hogg, the company’s commercial director. “British Steel has a distinguished history in the construction market and the steel we make appears in iconic buildings and structures across the globe.
In fact, the skylines in many major cities have been shaped by our steelworkers in Scunthorpe and Teesside.” Prices for steel have risen in recent months and the fall in the value of sterling since the UK’s vote to leave the EU has made British manufactured goods more competitive on price.
