HS2 Ltd, the company delivering Britain’s new high-speed railway, released £12bn ($21.5bn) worth of steel-intensive supply chain contracts to be tendered over the next 18 months.
According to a company press release on Nov 23, HS2 commenced a four-day event on Monday to showcase many of the contracts and opportunities available at its project for which, thousands of local and overseas businesses can prepare and submit their bids.
Davis Index understands that 52 “steel-related” companies have signed up to attend online seminars this week and 34 steel-related firms have one-on-one meetings with contractors – of which 30 are UK-based organizations.
It is unclear how much of the £12bn worth of deals relate to steel, though documents show the ‘Contractor’s Procurement Packages’ include tenders for “structural steel” and “reinforcement” steel products.
Alasdair McDiarmid, the Community (steelworkers) Union’s operations director noted that it was important for the UK Government and HS2 to “get this right and deliver on the Prime Minister’s promise” that steel producers in the UK would be the first in line for HS2 contracts throughout the supply chain.
McDiarmid added that UK steel producers had the ability to make more than 90pc of the steel required for HS2.