Beyond the Headlines: What British Steel’s Turkish Deal Really Means for the UK Steel Industry

British Steel’s announcement of a major Turkish rail contract has generated understandable excitement, but beyond the headlines lies a more nuanced story about the challenges facing the UK steel industry and what it will take to overcome them. The eight-figure deal with ERG International Group is genuinely positive, but industry figures are emphatic that it is not, by itself, a solution.
The contract to supply 36,000 tonnes of rail for Turkey’s 599km Ankara–İzmir high-speed railway demonstrates that British Steel can compete internationally and win prestigious commissions. With UK Export Finance backing, the deal has created 23 new jobs at Scunthorpe and restarted 24-hour production after more than a decade. These are real, tangible benefits.
But UK Steel’s director general was careful in his response, praising the deal while noting that “contracts alone cannot address the structural pressures facing the sector.” The pressures he identified are real and persistent: energy costs in the UK are significantly higher than in competitor countries, and import safeguards have not kept pace with the challenge of cheap steel from markets with lower standards.
The financial data tells the same story. British Steel is losing £1.2 million every day — a figure that has grown since the government emergency takeover — and total losses now stand at £359 million. Individual export contracts, however significant, cannot offset losses on this scale without structural changes to the cost base.
What the Turkish deal does do is strengthen the argument for investing in British Steel — demonstrating that the plant has the capability, the relationships, and the reputation to win business globally. That case now needs to be matched by a comprehensive plan that addresses the structural issues and provides the plant with a viable long-term foundation.