For the first time in more than a decade, workers at British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant are pulling overnight shifts, thanks to a major new order to supply rail for a Turkish high-speed railway. The contract — worth tens of millions of pounds — has not only brought in valuable revenue but has also triggered a return to 24-hour manufacturing that the site had not seen since before 2015.
The deal with ERG International Group covers 36,000 tonnes of rail for the 599km Ankara–İzmir railway, which is one of Turkey’s most ambitious infrastructure projects. The line will connect the capital with the Aegean coast, reducing both journey times and carbon emissions — a dual benefit that has made the project a flagship of Turkey’s modernisation drive.
Twenty-three new roles have been created at Scunthorpe as a direct consequence of the contract, providing a boost to a community that has endured prolonged anxiety about the plant’s future. The return to round-the-clock production is being seen as a marker of renewed industrial vigour, even if the wider financial challenges remain unchanged.
UK Export Finance helped facilitate the deal, and UK Steel welcomed it as a sign that British Steel can compete internationally when given the right support. The industry body called on the government to follow up with structural policy changes, including measures to reduce energy costs and protect against unfairly cheap imports.
The financial reality, though, is stark. British Steel is losing £1.2 million every day under government stewardship, with the total cost of the emergency takeover now reaching £359 million. Analysts say the Turkish contract is encouraging but cannot alone resolve the deep structural issues that have made the Scunthorpe plant loss-making for years.