Port Talbot stopped making iron in 2024. Now Sir Robert McAlpine is clearing the ground for what replaces it.
Tata Steel UK is spending £1.25 billion to put a single 3.2 million tonne-per-year electric arc furnace on the footprint of the blast furnaces and coke ovens it shut down. The UK Government is covering £500 million of that. It is the largest decarbonisation project in British heavy industry, and it is being built inside a plant that never stopped running.
Project Scope
McAlpine holds the construction management contract. Current work sits at the south end of the site: excavating old pits, levelling entire bays and installing new piling to prepare the furnace installation zone. The demolition side means clearing redundant blast-furnace-era infrastructure while the downstream hot strip mill and finishing lines keep operating on imported slab.
Tenova designed and manufactured the furnace itself. Main components were completed in 2026 and are shipping to Port Talbot from several countries. The supply chain below McAlpine is deliberately regional: Darlow Lloyd & Sons on earthworks and demolition, Andrew Scott Ltd on civils, plus Mii, Skelton Thomas, Wernick Buildings and Systems Group.
Construction formally opened in July 2025. Commissioning is targeted for the end of 2027.
Why It Matters
Port Talbot is the largest steelworks in the UK and was one of the country’s biggest single carbon point sources. The furnace cuts Tata Steel UK’s emissions by roughly 90 percent.
It is also the retrofit case in a three-way European experiment. Thyssenkrupp is threading direct reduction into a working mill at Duisburg, Stegra is building greenfield at Boden, and Port Talbot is going straight to scrap-fed EAF with no direct reduction stage at all. Each route carries different feedstock risk, and none has produced enough operating data yet to say which one the rest of the industry should copy. The contractors doing brownfield steel work over the next decade will find out first.
Project Team & Details
| Developer | Tata Steel UK |
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| Owner / Client | Tata Steel UK |
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| Consultants | Tenova (Electric Arc Furnace Design and Manufacture) |
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| General Contractor | Sir Robert McAlpine |
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| Major Subcontractors | Darlow Lloyd & Sons (Earthworks and Demolition)
Andrew Scott Ltd (Civils)
Wernick Buildings (Modular)
Systems Group (Fit-Out) |
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| Status | Under Construction |
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| Delivery Method | CMAR |
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| Funding Source | Mixed |
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