22/06/2026
While 281 construction firms collapsed last month, a 250-year-old British steel company just started putting up the UK's largest forge. Some really positive news for the industry.
Sheffield Forgemasters has been making steel since 1776. Two and a half centuries on the same site in Sheffield, through wars, recessions and every rough patch this country has seen.
This month they have started putting up the UK's largest forging facility. A building that will stand 45 metres tall, built to produce the kind of large-scale steel components that Britain's defence and nuclear programmes can't get from anywhere else.
There's £1.3 billion invested, funded by the Ministry of Defence, and its already taking shape.
While the rest of this week's headlines are full of firms going under (and there are plenty of them) there's a 250-year-old British steel company quietly building something bigger than anything this country has seen before.
People in this industry should know all about it.
It's not a quick fix for everything that's wrong right now. The pressure on margins, the late payments, the firms folding, that's all still very real.
Sometimes though, it's worth looking at what's actually going up, not just what's coming down.
British steel. Still here. Still building.
What projects or investments are giving you confidence in the industry right now?