The Lower Thames Crossing is poised to be built with foreign steel, even though the government has pledged to prioritise domestic production.

The Sunday Times has reported the £11 billion scheme is understood to have begun sounding out steel manufacturers to provide 20,000 tonnes of “low embodied carbon steel”.

Industry sources say this will exclude domestic manufacturers from the tender and force ministers to approve the provision of steel from abroad that meets the UK’s green targets. The report adds that the government has insisted that it was championing British steelmaking.

The Sunday Times adds that, “while environmental campaigners may welcome the project’s green credentials, it will leave it at odds with the government’s stated ambition to promote the use of UK-made materials in major infrastructure projects,” and that “the UK’s inability to produce “low embodied carbon steel” is a function of a wider industry malaise.”

(File picture – National Highways)