British steel will carry electricity under the sea from Morocco to Devon to power the UK and slash carbon emissions.
Submarine cable manufacturer XLCC today signed the UK Steel Charter in Parliament, committing it to using British-made metal where possible as it creates vital wires for the £16billion scheme.
XLCC is involved in the Xlinks Morocco-UK Power Project, consisting of four 2,361-mile long, “high-voltage, direct current” cables on the seabed.
The world’s longest ever undersea cables will need 90,000 tonnes of steel, with the first set due to be laid between 2025 and 2027, connecting wind and solar power generated in Morocco to Alverdiscott, North Devon.
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XLCC’s project director Alan Mathers said: “Signing the UK Steel Charter is an opportunity to show our resolve to find more environmentally-friendly solutions throughout all our operations.
“The Charter aligns with our values of keeping emissions as low as possible as we support global renewable projects, and we are pleased to publicly support a vital domestic industry and its workers.”
UK Steel director-general Gareth Stace said: “As a forward-looking business seeking to provide low emission energy to the UK, sourcing steel from domestic suppliers fits with their core mission.
“XLCC and businesses like it will secure jobs for the future and allow this strategically vital industry to flourish for decades to come.”
The announcement came at a Westminster event today for MPs, steel industry leaders and unions, aimed at piling pressure on firms and the Government to use British steel in huge procurement deals.
UK Steel chairman Luis Sanz, Celsa Group’s chief commercial and marketing officer, told guests that buying British “makes good business sense, from once in a lifetime national infrastructure projects to cutting-edge technology”.
Urging purchasers to source steel in the UK, he said “offshoring manufacturing has neither been good for UK growth nor for the communities where manufacturing is based, nor indeed for the global carbon footprint”.
The Government has been criticised for buying steel from abroad - and Community steelworks’’ union’s operations director Alasdair McDiarmid admitted: “It is always frustrating when we see steel contracts that could have been fulfilled here going overseas.
“As we all know, buying Britain’s steel is a win-win for all concerned.
“Of course our steel companies want the public and private sectors to use their products, but what government wouldn’t want taxpayer-funded contracts to support British jobs and industry rather than supporting our competitors overseas?”
Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Steel, insisted it is “an industry of the future”.
He added: “It’s at the cutting edge of making, buying and selling more in Britain.
“This is an industry with massive potential; it’s not just desirable, it’s essential.”
Business Minister Lee Rowley told the event: “We want a UK steel industry which is thriving, which works and which continues to show the resilience which we want in our country for the long term.”
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015.
