The numbers tell a compelling story. British Steel has won a contract worth tens of millions of pounds, creating 23 new jobs, supplying 36,000 tonnes of rail, for a 599km railway, in a country thousands of miles away — and restarting overnight production that had not been seen at Scunthorpe for over ten years. The deal with ERG International Group for Turkey’s Ankara–İzmir high-speed railway is, by any measure, a significant achievement.
The Ankara–İzmir line is one of Turkey’s most ambitious infrastructure projects — a high-speed electric railway designed to connect the capital with the Aegean coast faster, more efficiently, and with a smaller carbon footprint than existing alternatives. British Steel’s involvement, supported by UK Export Finance, shows that the plant remains a credible supplier at the international level.
For the workers of Scunthorpe, where around 3,500 people are employed, the deal provides a welcome morale boost after a prolonged period of uncertainty. The return of 24-hour production is particularly significant — it marks a level of operational intensity not seen at the site in more than a decade, and signals a meaningful increase in both output and opportunity.
UK Steel has praised the deal as “essential to underpinning a sustainable turnaround” and called on the government to complement it with structural reform — particularly around energy costs and import protections. The director general stressed that rail’s technical demands and strategic importance make it central to British Steel’s long-term commercial identity.
But behind the impressive numbers lies a more sobering reality: £1.2 million lost every day, and a total government bill of £359 million since the emergency takeover. The Turkish contract is a win, but the bigger challenge — finding a sustainable, long-term model for British Steel — remains very much unsolved.