Demolition work commenced at the former Redcar Steelworks site on Monday with the works’ Coal Handling Facility the first equipment to be razed to the ground.
According to local media coverage on Mar 1, local demolition, reclamation, and remediation contractor MGL Demolition has been selected to perform the estimated 15-week “demo” programme on the 4,500-acre site to prepare it for a “freeport” status bid.
Once cleared, the site will be central to the local Mayor’s plans to transform the former steelworks to a freeport, with areas given this status benefitting from streamlined planning processes, customs procedures, and tax relief among other benefits.
Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen, commented that the areas where these freeports would be set up could be announced during the Chancellor’s Budget on Wednesday, which will require £393mn of capital investment over the next 12 months.
A UK-based trader hypothesised that there could be up to 500,000mt of ferrous scrap made available from the demolition and deconstruction of the Redcar Steelworks and all its associated infrastructure.
Formerly owned by Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI) UK, the Redcar Steelworks had an annual iron and steelmaking capacity of 3.6mn mt per annum, operated one blast furnace, four coke ovens, two basic oxygen converters, and two twin strand slab casters.