On 24 June, over 120 people braved one of the hottest days London has thrown at us to gather at Alie Street for Circular Steel UK 2026, our fifth UK event and the biggest yet. Developers, engineers, fabricators, steel producers, stockholders, demolition specialists, policymakers and researchers, all in one room, all working on the same problem.
And here is the headline from the day: nobody was debating whether steel reuse works any more. Three years ago, that argument still needed making. This year, the conversation was about scaling: contracts, prices, procurement windows, standards, supply. Steel reuse has grown up.
We have just published a full multi-page summary of the event, covering every keynote, all ten burst presentations, three panels and the our five roundtables. A few things to whet your appetite:
The scale of the opportunity is stark. Reused steel currently meets around 0.3% of UK demand for typical open sections. Set that against research showing reuse can cut embodied emissions by up to 97% compared with new steel, and you can see why the room was full.
The economics session put real numbers on the table. New steel at £900-1,000 per tonne and up £300-400 since January. Dismantling premiums, fabrication uplifts, and the design decisions that make the difference between reuse costing broadly nothing extra and costing serious money. The short version: decide early and the economics work.
Policy is moving. The City of London wants to be a circular city by 2040 and 56% of its major applications last year were retrofit projects. Government told us the Circular Economy Growth Plan is close to publication, and that cost is not the main barrier to reuse. Visibility and awareness are.
And the day ended with a challenge: steel reuse cannot thrive alone inside a linear economy. Concrete, bricks and facades need to catch up, and the Cross Industry Reuse Summit on 4 November at the British Library is where that conversation goes next.
The full event summary is now available on the website, alongside photos from the day, highlight film, films from our platinum sponsors Elliott Wood and Maconda, and recordings of the keynotes and panel sessions. Follow the Circular Steel LinkedIn page so you do not miss them.
A huge thank you once again to our sponsors, speakers, roundtable hosts and everyone who attended. If you were there, you already know. If you were not, the summary is the next best thing, and Circular Steel UK returns on 23 June 2027.
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