Blog: Hinkley Point C a big opportunity for UK steel

Hinkley Point C will be the first new nuclear power station built for a generation in the UK, and will pave the way for further nuclear power stations around the country. Hinkley Point C is a big opportunity for UK steel, as well as for UK construction and manufacturing more widely.

Conditions to allow the Hinkley Point C project to go ahead are now in place. These include agreements between EDF and China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), the UK Government, and key suppliers for the project.

The project has a large and varied demand for steel. This includes around 200,000 tonnes of reinforcement in the concrete structures, over 600,000 embedment plates, large quantities of structural steelwork for the construction of the turbine halls and other structures, steel containment liners to the two reactor buildings, stainless steel liners to fuel ponds and a thousand kilometres of steel pipework. It is our expectation that a large proportion of this requirement will come from UK companies, subject to a competitive process.

However, the UK does not currently have the capability or capacity of producing the very largest forgings required by the power station, therefore these will have to be sourced from outside the UK.  There will be opportunity for suppliers, including those in the UK, to compete in the supply of forged components for the turbine generators and in other items such as pumps, motors, valves and the like.

We have secured many preferred bidders for the project across the spectrum of construction and manufacturing. Companies from right across the country have already been successful in securing over £250m of manufacturing contracts, which is further evidence of our growing confidence that UK plc can be competitive and deliver the quality standards required of new nuclear build.

Construction at Hinkley Point C will provide 25,000 employment opportunities in the UK and 1,000 apprenticeships.  Overall, more than 60% of the project's construction value is expected to come from British companies.