The British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA) has intensified its campaign for fairer procurement on publicly funded infrastructure following reports that the Net Zero Teesside project is close to awarding a significant 10,000-tonne structural steelwork package to a Chinese fabricator.

This potential decision comes despite substantial UK taxpayer backing for the project and the confirmed availability of equivalent domestic capacity.

The BCSA estimates the package, valued at approximately £30 million, could sustain around 600 skilled British fabrication workers in employment for a full year. The Association states the work appears likely to be offshored even though UK fabricators possess the plant, labour, certification, and capacity to deliver it immediately. This occurs at a time when construction demand is reportedly at its weakest since the early 1990s.

A key concern for the BCSA is that importing ready-fabricated steelwork bypasses not only domestic steelmaking but also the high-value fabrication processes traditionally undertaken by British firms. The BCSA warns that every imported tonne displaces skilled jobs—including those for welders, platers, designers, and project managers—and removes business from local engineering, logistics, and coating supply chains. It also represents a loss of tax revenue that would otherwise return directly to the Exchequer.

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The Association has pointed out that the decision risks unnecessarily offshoring high-value work from the former Redcar steelworks site itself, which directly undermines government commitments to support domestic growth, level up industrial regions, and strengthen sovereign capability. The BCSA highlights that Chinese steel is often heavily state-subsidised, which distorts global markets and makes like-for-like competition impossible for UK firms without purposeful policy support.

Furthermore, the BCSA has raised serious concerns regarding the environmental impact. Transporting thousands of tonnes of fabricated steelwork from China would generate an estimated 4,000 tonnes of avoidable CO₂ emissions. The BCSA argues this directly contradicts the environmental intent of a project explicitly marketed as a climate solution, suggesting that using UK fabricators would reinforce the integrity of the scheme.

Jonathan Clemens, chief executive of the BCSA, stated: "UK fabricators have the capability, the skills and the capacity to deliver this work now. Yet a publicly backed national project is set to overlook them in favour of heavily subsidised overseas imports.

"If we are serious about protecting sovereign capability, supporting skilled employment and maintaining a resilient domestic supply chain, procurement decisions like this must be reviewed. The government has set out a framework in the Procurement Act for public buyers to engage UK SMEs more actively. This is exactly the kind of contract where that commitment should be upheld."

Earlier this year, the BCSA coordinated an open letter to the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, which was signed by over thirty senior leaders in the constructional steelwork sector. The letter called for a "New Deal for Constructional Steel" and immediate reform of public infrastructure procurement policies.

Jonathan Clemens concluded: "Steelmaking does not stand alone; it relies on a robust UK fabrication sector. If major publicly funded projects repeatedly bypass capable British firms, the whole ecosystem is put at risk. Our members stand ready to deliver, and we will continue to press for a procurement system that recognises and values that capability."