Net Zero Teesside’s £5M Chinese steel order: procurement lessons for UK project teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
BP and Equinor have placed a £5M order for about 7,000t of steel from a Chinese supplier for the Net Zero Teesside carbon capture and storage project, drawing strong criticism from industry body UK Steel. The contract covers structural steel for key CCS infrastructure on Teesside, rather than sourcing from UK mills such as those at Port Talbot or Scunthorpe. The move raises concerns over domestic capacity utilisation, embedded carbon in imported steel, and procurement policy on major UK low‑carbon projects.
Technical Brief
- Industry body also questions higher embedded carbon from long-distance shipping of heavy sections.
- Criticism centres on public perception of “green” projects importing high‑carbon‑footprint construction materials.
- Procurement scrutiny likely to intensify on future UK CCS and hydrogen plants regarding domestic content.
Our Take
Steel-linked Infrastructure coverage in our database is relatively sparse compared with concrete and tunnelling themes, so this 7,000 t steel procurement for the Net Zero Teesside CCS project stands out as one of the few items where steel sourcing itself becomes a strategic issue rather than a background material choice.
With the United Kingdom and China both central to this steel contract, UK Steel’s reaction underscores a tension we also see in other UK Infrastructure pieces: domestic industrial policy and decarbonisation goals can pull in opposite directions when low-cost imports support ‘green’ projects but sideline local producers.
Compared with other UK port and regeneration schemes in our coverage, such as Associated British Ports’ £500M Solent Gateway 2 expansion and the Chatham Docks/Basin3 dispute involving ArcelorMittal Kent Wire, the Net Zero Teesside case highlights that steel supply chain politics are now surfacing not just in traditional marine works but also in flagship CCS and energy-transition projects.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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