'Fantastic news'; big boost for East Cleveland as world-class service centre given thumbs-up

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British Steel is pressing ahead with a £26m upgrade for its Skinningrove works after planning permission was granted.

Redcar and Cleveland Council has approved a new service centre, generating jobs, in the firm's largest single investment in its Special Profiles business in 30 years. It will see cut-to-length lines, product milling, machining and warehousing operations opening up at the East Cleveland site, ready to serve the forklift industry.

British Steel says the world-class centre will create work for a number of contractors. David Hogg, Special Profiles Plant Manager, said it was fantastic news for the company's people, its business and its customers.

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"This development will ensure we remain a leading global manufacturer and represents the biggest single investment in our Special Profiles business for more than 30 years. We hope to start building works later this year with commissioning expected to start in August 2023.”

British Steel’s Special Profiles business makes components for a wide range of sectors including the forklift and earthmoving industries. Its plans for the new service centre, which will sit at the heart of the company’s Skinningrove site, were designed by lead architects Building Design Northern (BDN Ltd).

David Waine, British Steel’s commercial director for Special Profiles, said: “This is a hugely exciting development and another major step forward for our business. We had an incredible response from our customers when we announced our plans so we’re delighted we can now press ahead with this investment.

"It will enable us to manufacture world-class products to the tightest of tolerances. We will also be able to explore new growth opportunities, for although our primary product offering will be for forklift mast production, we expect to be able to expand this to include other product applications too.”

Richard Marsden, managing director of Building Design Northern, said: “We are incredibly proud to be involved in the continued investment by British Steel into Skinningrove, building on our strong track record of designing and engineering industrial buildings.”

The new Skinningrove facility is designed to replace the services currently offered at the company’s site in Darlington, which stores and cuts profiles to customer requirements. The company revealed in August 2021 that it intends to offer all employees currently based at Darlington new roles to retain and support its skilled workforce.

This latest scheme builds on previous investments, including the installation of a £2m world-leading surface descaling system, a high-tech product processing centre and a unique robotic identification tracking control for each profile manufactured at the Skinningrove mill. Last month, the Special Profiles business announced it has commissioned a £1m state-of-the art laser measurement system.

Headquartered in Scunthorpe, Jingye Group-owned British Steel has sites across the UK and Europe including Teesside Beam Mill at Lackenby and service centres on Teesside and in Darlington.

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