What We Have Built

Double-sided cantilever racking, running along the hardstanding beside the warehouse and loaded with black round bar. It holds a thousand tonnes of extra material, and the layout has been set out so further bays can be added onto the same run rather than starting again somewhere else.

Hot-rolled black bar is the right material to rack outside. It is supplied with mill scale and is turned, ground or machined before it goes near a finished part, so a few weeks in the weather changes nothing about what you receive. What the yard buys us is scale — and it frees internal racking and floor space for bright bar and for the cut-to-length operation, which is where space is genuinely tight.

Cantilever arms on the new external racking loaded with black round bar, bar ends paint-marked and each level carrying a rack location label

More Depth in the Grades That Run Out First

The material landing on the new racking is not a new product list. It is more of what we already stock, concentrated on the grades where running short is most expensive:

  • EN39B (835M15) — nickel-chromium-molybdenum case-hardening steel, black bar only, 40–300mm.
  • EN30B (835M30) — nickel-chromium-molybdenum through-hardening steel, black bar only, 40–300mm.
  • EN24 (817M40) in the annealed condition — alongside the quenched and tempered bar we have always held, for shops that would rather machine soft and heat treat afterwards.

These are not the fastest-moving lines on the racks, and that is exactly the point. When a high-alloy grade goes out of stock the alternative is not a longer delivery — it is waiting for a mill rolling programme. Holding more of them is what turns a three-month problem into a next-day pick.

► What the New Racking Adds
Extra capacity1,000 tonnes
Room for moreFurther bays planned on the same run
MaterialHot-rolled black round bar
Grades deepenedEN39B, EN30B, EN24 annealed
Minimum order1 piece

What It Means While Quota Is Tight

The UK steel trade measure that replaced the old safeguard on 1 July 2026 hands out tariff-free import volume quarterly, first come first served, with a 50% duty on anything landing outside it. Quarter one showed how fast a line can close: the residual quota for non-alloy merchant bar was exhausted on 27 July — day 27 of a 92-day quarter.

Like every stockholder in the country, we buy from origins the measure covers — the EU among them — so bringing material in means bringing it in while quota is open, not at the moment a customer happens to need it. That is precisely what another thousand tonnes of capacity is for: room to take more in while it can still land duty-free, and hold it until it is wanted.

Bar that is already on our racks has already landed and already cleared. Buy it from stock and your order carries no quota question and no exposure to the 50% out-of-quota duty; the price we quote is the price you pay. The exposure sits with us, where a stockholder can plan around it, rather than with your order, where it would land as a surprise.

We set out how the measure works, and what changes on 1 October, in the steel quota reset.

Need black bar from stock — EN39B, EN30B, annealed EN24 or anything else on the racks? Tell us the grade, size and quantity and we will confirm availability.

► Request a Quote