TURKEY: UK steelmaker British Steel has begun 24/7 rail production at its Scunthorpe plant for the first time in more than a decade after securing an ‘eight-figure’ contract to supply 36 000 tonnes of rail for use on the high speed line under construction between Ankara and İzmir.
British Steel has created 23 new roles for the contract, and will deliver the 60E2 rails in 36 m lengths throughout 2026.
Polatlı – Izmir high speed line project
The 503 route-km Polatlı – Izmir high speed line will reduce the rail distance between Turkey’s capital Ankara and third largest city Izmir from 824 km to 624 km, with trains running at a maximum speed of 250 km/h to reduce the end-to-end journey time from 14 h to 3½ h.
Construction began in 2012, but was suspended in 2018 when almost 50% of the works had been completed on some sections. Procurement was relaunched in 2020, and work restarted in 2022.
The main contractor is a consortium of ERG International and Sauerwein & Schaefer Bau. Completion of the line is being financed by Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered Bank.
In 2022 UK Export Finance agreed to guarantee £1·8bn through its Buyer Credit Scheme, with British companies to benefit from contracts for rail equipment including track, turnouts, point machines, fasteners, material and equipment for signalling, telecommunication and electrification systems as well as project insurance and freight forwarding services.
Demanding technical specifications
‘Securing this prestigious contract — with the support of UK Export Finance — was a major achievement and underlines British Steel’s ability to build the sustainable track systems of the future’, said British Steel’s Chief Commercial Officer Lisa Coulson on February 17. ‘It also demonstrates the importance of British Steel, the UK’s only manufacturer of rail, to this country’s economy and Britain’s global trading partners.’
Commercial Director, Rail, Craig Harvey said ’we have a distinguished record of supplying into high speed rail projects across the world and have previously delivered rail into Turkey through ERG for earlier phases of the Ankara to Izmir line. For this new agreement, we were again able to comply with the demanding technical specifications and the project delivery schedule which we can support with a robust logistics supply chain.’
UK government Industry Minister Chris McDonald said ‘supporting deals like this is at the heart of our Steel Strategy. Every tonne of British-made steel used in projects at home and abroad helps sustain skilled employment and reinforces its quality for the world’s most ambitious engineering projects.’
Further collaboration
ERG International UK’s Chief Commercial Officer Mohamed Ibrahim said ’this contract not only strengthens our technical delivery, but also reinforces the strategic co-operation between ERG, British Steel, UKEF and the Department for Business & Trade across major international infrastructure projects.
’This new rail supply agreement follows successful deliveries in 2025 and paves the way for further collaboration between ERG International and British Steel on upcoming projects.’
