British Steel lands four year Belgian contract

British Steel has secured a major new contract with Belgium's national railway operator.

By The Newsroom Thursday, 25th October 2018, 4:04 pm Updated Thursday, 25th October 2018, 4:08 pm

British Steel plant in Scunthorpe

The four-year agreement with Infrabel is for the maintenance and renewal of the Belgian rail network and will see British Steel supply between 35,000 and 40,000 tonnes of rail a year.

That adds up to more than 3,000km of rail over the duration of the contract with deliveries scheduled to start in January 2019.

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Richard Bell, British Steel’s Commercial Director Rail, said: “We’re delighted to have been awarded this contract and look forward to working in partnership with Infrabel over the next four years.

“We operate in a highly competitive market so it’s extremely pleasing that, after a short break, Infrabel have again named us as their main supplier.

“It’s a great endorsement of our products and services and securing another contract with a national network operator is a source of enormous pride.”

The steel for the rails will be manufactured at British Steel’s headquarters in Scunthorpe before being transported to the company’s state-of-the art rail rolling facility in Hayange, France.

From Hayange, a shuttle service will deliver train loads of the rail direct to Infrabel’s welding plants in varying lengths including 100 metres. The announcement comes a short time after British Steel announced it had secured a two-year

contract extension with Network Rail, the company operating and maintaining the UK’s rail infrastructure. The agreement will see it supply Network Rail with over 200,000 tonnes of rail.