SeAH Steel Holdings said Thursday it will participate in Britain’s state-led offshore wind power project to supply key parts.

The South Korean steel firm said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to construct the world’s biggest monopile production facility.

A monopile is a simple structure consisting of a steel pipe driven into the seabed, providing a fixed foundation for an offshore wind turbine.

“SeAH Steel will build a factory in Britain to manufacture superscale monopiles. With annual production capacity of 160,000 metric tons, it will be the biggest monoplie factory in the world,” a company official said.

With commercial production set for the first quarter of 2023, SeAH Steel aims to produce more than 100 monopiles per year, which accounts for about half of Britian’s annual demand.

For SeAH Steel’s smooth entry in the local monopile market, the UK government will use SeAH Steel by local offshore wind power operators so that they can discuss signing early supply contracts. 

By Kim Byungw-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)