Businesses urged to capitalise on project to build UK’s largest open-die forge

Sheffield Forgemasters wants the region’s businesses to seize the opportunity to work on its new Heavy Forge building.

A ‘meet the buyer’ event is being led by the company’s construction partners, VINCI Construction, at Sheffield’s Quay Hotel on 24 January, and the business is hoping to build strong partnerships with local firms.

Attendees will learn about its 13,000 tonne forging line development and the associated construction supply chain opportunities, followed by a networking session with representatives from VINCI, Sheffield Forgemasters and Constructionline.

Once developed, the new 137,000 sq ft structure will be next to the existing forge building on Brightside Lane and as well as housing the 13,000 tonne press, will include offices and a water pumping station.

It will form part of a recapitalisation programme by the Ministry of Defence, which will see up to £400m invested in the site over 10 years to upgrade Sheffield Forgemasters’ defence-critical assets.

Steve Marshall, manufacturing transformation director at Sheffield Forgemasters, said: “We are urging businesses from the Sheffield City Region to make the most of the opportunities to engage with us on the first phase of our £400m recapitalisation programme.

The new forging line is a large-scale development and we are really hoping to maximise on the amount of contracted work for this project that can remain within the region, for the benefit of those businesses and the regional economy.

Our partners for the project, Vinci Construction, will be outlining numerous packages that are up for tender and we cannot emphasise how important this project is, as the first milestone in a much larger ongoing programme to recapitalise large sections of our plant.”

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