Tag: Birmingham

The construction sector pathway to net zero is excluding domestic steel from being used in projects due to a misalignment in sustainability standards between the two sectors, panellists said during last week’s UK Metals Expo in Birmingham, attended by Kallanish.

Ben Cunliffe, director of sustainability at British Steel, told delegates there needed to be an “urgent discussion” regarding the “alignment of steel consuming sectors and alignment particularly of government policy”.

The construction sector, which is British Steel’s largest steel consuming sector, is taking a completely different path to net zero, he noted. He added the sector was in a race to remove embodied carbon steel from buildings. The impact of that means “British Steel or other steel producers in this country are essentially disqualified from supply into an increasing number of projects, [which] are being replaced by imports,” he added.

There is a “complete mismatch between, on one hand, the steel industry doing its best to decarbonise and being part of national policy, and on the other hand, the market being offshored for structural steel,” he noted.

This was causing serious difficulties for the steelmaker, and the issue was being made worse by the wide market adoption of product classifications such as Steelzero and the construction leadership council. These frameworks disqualify UK produced steel from supply into British projects, Cunliffe highlighted.

“Why are we allowing that to happen?” he asked.

He also highlighted the Welsh government net zero policy excludes steel by Tata Steel and British Steel from schools, hospitals and public buildings. “They’ve failed to understand the bigger picture of the UK Steel Strategy,” he added.

He warned of deindustrialisation in place of decarbonisation as a serious threat for the UK.

Elsewhere, during a separate panel discussion on the construction sector, panellists noted a divergence in the willingness to pay for low-emission steel used in projects.

Jonathan Clemens, ceo at BCSA, highlighted the divide in the construction sector for these products. “There are certain markets, [such as] commercial in London which is very much into the green agenda, and there are certain clients in parts of the UK and certain product types [that have] no interest at all in low-carbon steel,” he said.

“It isn’t everyone all going in one direction. Part of the challenge is the cost of lower carbon steel versus traditional steel,” he concluded.

Carrie Bone UK