British Steel’s deal to supply rail for Turkey’s new 599km Ankara–İzmir high-speed railway is a story of innovation — in products, in export finance, in the resumption of 24-hour manufacturing. It is also, however, a race against time. The plant is losing £1.2 million every day, and the window for securing a sustainable future may not be open indefinitely.
The eight-figure contract with ERG International Group, supported by UK Export Finance, will see 36,000 tonnes of high-specification rail produced at Scunthorpe and shipped to Turkey. The Ankara–İzmir line is a flagship Turkish infrastructure investment — electric, high-speed, and designed to reduce travel times and carbon emissions in one of the country’s most important transport corridors.
Twenty-three new jobs have been created, and the plant has resumed round-the-clock production for the first time in over ten years. These are markers of innovation in practice — of a plant reinventing itself commercially after a period of crisis. UK Steel has praised the contract and called for structural policy support to complement commercial wins.
The innovation required to secure British Steel’s future, however, goes beyond winning contracts. It requires innovative solutions to energy cost disadvantages, to the question of long-term ownership, and to the structural issues that have made the plant loss-making for years. These are the innovations that the government and industry need to develop urgently.
Total losses since the emergency takeover stand at £359 million. Daily losses are £1.2 million. The race against time is real — and the Turkish deal is evidence that British Steel is still in it. But running faster commercially will only help if the structural obstacles are also being dismantled. That is the challenge the plant now faces.