Domestic steel producers need our support to transition to greener production

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The great thrill of working in our industry is the tangibility of the outputs. 

At Sir Robert McAlpine, we have the privilege of shaping the Built Environment with landmark national projects such as the Millennium Dome, London Museum, the Elizabeth Tower, and the Eden Project, to name but a few.

One of our most exciting current projects is delivering the Electric Arc Furnace at Port Talbot for Tata Steel – one of Europe's largest arc furnaces – which is capable of producing three million tonnes of low–carbon steel a year. 

Delivering this project is giving us a direct stake in the UK's transition to greener steel succeeding, not only in principle, but also through the physical infrastructure that is making it possible.

We have a 157–year history of proudly building Britain's future heritage – from the Mulberry Harbours that supported the D–Day landings, to Wembley Stadium for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, and the 2012 Olympic Stadium. 

That history shapes how we think about the transition. Decisions made in construction specifications ripple through supply chains and into the livelihoods of steelworkers in Scunthorpe, Sheffield, Port Talbot and the Welsh Valleys. 

Long before ESG was a recognised concept, Sir Robert McAlpine has thought carefully about the social impact of our work. That instinct still guides us today.

As a result of our history and deep roots in the UK, we understand the impact a new building can have, and that we need to think carefully about how the decisions we make around construction have real world impacts. 

From hospitals and schools to offices and industrial facilities, considering the livelihoods and communities that these projects support is integral to the work we do. That history also shapes how we think about sustainability. 

For us, it has never been reducible to a single metric. Carbon matters enormously — but so does social value, resilience, and circularity. The best outcomes come from weighing all these together.

We support decarbonisation in our sector, and the targets for our industry. But how we carry out that transition is important. Offshoring UK production to lower–carbon mills is not decarbonising, but displacement. 

It simply moves industrial activity overseas, exporting both emissions and jobs, and leaves the UK more exposed to volatile global markets and rising tariff barriers at a moment in which domestic production capability has become a question of national security.

For us, this means that we don't ban blast furnace steel from our projects, which is at risk of becoming one of the unintended consequences when narrow carbon targets are applied to projects. 

Instead, our starting point will always be performance and the quality of the product. We look at our projects in the round, considering the whole life carbon impact of the building, and we set separate minimum carbon standards for both EAF and blast furnace products based on a sliding scale, to ensure best solutions are implemented when delivering our client's brief.

This is the dual decarbonisation approach. It means driving demand for lower carbon steel over time but not excluding any specific producers today in a way that would make it harder for them to fund their transition. 

New EAF facilities are a critical step. Running in parallel is the development of primary steel made via hydrogen–based direct reduction of iron ore, but that remains some years from commercial viability at scale, as recent project delays across Europe have shown. 

To ensure a consistent supply of steel that supports the British economy and the communities that depend on it, the dual decarbonisation approach is the honest, workable path.

The destination is clear: a UK steel sector that is decarbonised, competitive, and capable of supplying the infrastructure and buildings the country needs. But the route to it requires nuance. It means demand–side leadership from contractors and clients who understand that excluding UK producers in pursuit of a cleaner project today undermines the cleaner sector we need tomorrow.

With so much volatility in steel markets around the world, and the ongoing trend of rising tariff barriers, it is critical that the UK retains domestic production capability, and we're proud to support UK steel producers.

Courtesy: www.msn.com