Construction work has commenced on a new £400million offshore wind facility in Teesside.

The facility is set to become the biggest of its kind in the world and will create 750 direct jobs.

SeAH Wind Ltd's 1.13million sq ft facility will produce bases for offshore wind turbines and will be based at Redcar’s Teesworks, the UK's biggest industrial zone. It is the first scheme driven by private sector investment to begin construction at any UK Freeport.

To mark the occasion, politicians, business leaders and key stakeholders visited the site for a formal Signing Ceremony, followed by presentations and a question-and-answer session ahead of the ground-breaking.

When fully operational, the scheme will create 750 jobs, with a further 1,500 indirect jobs in the supply chain during construction.

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SeAH Wind Ltd is committed to supporting the local workforce and has previously held engagement events so businesses from across the region could learn how they can get involved as work on the factory ramps up.

When complete, the facility is expected to produce between 100 and 150 monopiles per year which will be transported directly from the factory to Teesworks’ under-construction South Bank Quay before heading to the North Sea for installation using specialised pile driving equipment.

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen welcomed President & CEO of SeAH Steel Holdings Joosung Lee and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng MP to the Teesworks site to mark the occasion.

Mayor Houchen said: "This is a monumental day years in the making. Since 2017 we’ve had a challenging time to secure all of the land at Teesworks and have worked hard to get it remediated and investor-ready as quickly as possible. Now we’ve finally got to the good part!

"This is not only the first private sector project to get spades in the ground at Teesworks. It’s not only the first at the Teesside Freeport. It's actually the first at any Freeport in the UK – once again proving our region is the place to do business in the safer, cleaner and healthier sectors of the future.

"The first building blocks are now in place to create hundreds of high-quality, well-paid jobs for people across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool for generations to come. And those numbers will only grow as the other transformational projects we've got lined up mark us out as the driving force behind the UK’s low carbon ambitions."