A major new export contract has given British Steel cause for celebration, but industry analysts and political observers say the deeper questions about the plant’s future remain urgently unanswered. The eight-figure deal with ERG International Group — covering 36,000 tonnes of rail for Turkey’s 599km Ankara–İzmir high-speed railway — is a commercial success, but it cannot disguise the scale of the ongoing financial challenge.
British Steel is losing £1.2 million every single day under government control, and the total outlay since the emergency takeover stands at £359 million. These are figures that were disclosed to parliament and that have caused growing concern among politicians, policy analysts, and steel industry experts. The Turkish deal is welcome, but it barely makes a dent in losses of this magnitude.
On the positive side, the contract has created 23 new jobs and restarted 24-hour production at Scunthorpe for the first time in over a decade. UK Export Finance helped secure the agreement, and UK Steel has praised the deal as “essential to underpinning a sustainable turnaround.” The industry body has called for energy cost support and stronger import protections to complement commercial wins.
British Steel’s history in recent years has been turbulent. Sold to Greybull Capital in 2016, it collapsed into insolvency in 2019. Chinese buyer Jingye Group took it out of receivership in 2020 but announced plans to shut the Scunthorpe site last year, citing daily losses of £700,000. Under government control, those losses have widened further.
The Turkish contract is proof that British Steel has a product the world wants to buy. But commercial capability alone does not guarantee survival. What is needed — and what remains elusive — is a long-term plan that combines new ownership, structural investment, and policy support to make the business genuinely viable.