Well - given that we only produce about 4.5% of EU steel - and our output has declined year on year in comparison with Germany, Italy and France who collectively make over 50% of EU steel then the answer is probably "No - why bother"
However, there is something in the psyche of many nations that means an absence of steel manufacturing capability is "unsettling"
Personally speaking, we shouldn't have allowed our steel industry to decline in the first place - a comment true of many other sectors - but we are where we are, so basically it looks like the end of the line and there is no real feasibility of the plant being saved anyway - the current owners ain't going to come up with the money
It's going to play hell in and around the local economy - and you can hear the mantra of "See, if we had a proper BREXIT, we could sort it out with a government loan" - but that's not going to happen either.
I'm afraid that it's gone and that's the end of it
It has come at a somewhat inconvenient time for the government. Today the Euro Elections take place and Theresa May is close to breaking point and forced to resign as PM over her disastrous handling of Brexit.
The EU will shoulder much of the blame for the collapse of British Steel even if it's only a small factor in reality. Officially we should have left the EU back in March but had not because of the government's incompentence and failure at coming up with a deal.
Such a scenario will add fuel to the fire of the entire Brexit fiasco. I wouldn't be surprised if Scunthorpe will end up as the town where the highest percentage of voters have voted for the Brexit Party in retaliation against both the EU and the Westminster government.
On the other hand, if the government manages to save British Steel then they might receive some credit for doing so...
Several years ago I visited Joy Mining in Worcester with the IET local group.
The company was originally Dowry Meco and steel was delivered by train from South Wales, at the time of our visit steel made in South Wales was being shipped to the former shipbuilding yards in Poland for fabrication then transported back to Worcester for assembly before the finished mining products were shipped worldwide. The factory had now been bought by Komatsu and I presume Welsh steel is still being fabricated in Poland and brought back to the UK for assembly.
A comment made during the IET visit was that transport is cheap making the transportation of huge pieces steel around Europe economically viable when it would actually make far more sense to still put the steel on a train to move it directly from South Wales to Worcester.
Steel is moved around in huge quantities at a relatively low cost, transport costs are not a major concern unlike actual cost and quality of the steel.
If the UK does not use a significant amount of the steel produced in the UK within the UK and the UK crashes out of of the EU on WTO terms is there any point in saving British Steel?
America with Donald Trump as president is not going to readily accept imports of British Steel with tariffs already in place and will EU manufacturers be prepared to pay the tariffs that will come if we trade on WTO terms?
The government needs to step in and help save British Steel to demonstrate that they believe that UK industry has a future post Brexit, unless it is competitively priced high quality steel that can supply a healthy domestic market and be exported tariff free is there any point?
There are two massive projects that have commenced in the UK that require large amounts of steel.
HS2 the high speed rail line that should use steel rails made in Scunthorpe as well as steel for other structures.
Then there is the Sirius Minerals potash mine in Yorkshire that has already placed orders for steelwork the new mine requires mining equipment and the twenty three mile long conveyor to transport the potash to the former Redcar Steel Works dock on Teeside for processing and export.
The idea that steel may have to be imported to alter the former Redcar Steel Works Dock for its new use is laughable, particularly if a tariff has to paid it.
“If you don’t have steel, you don’t have a country,” President Trump said when he slapped a 25% tariff on steel imports into the USA, which includes steel made in the UK.
There was a pretty stupid discussion on the Jeremy Vine show this week asking if the government should save Jamie Oliviers Restaurant rather than British Steel, you cannot have retailers with shops and websites or businesses such as pubs and restaurants unless you have people such as those in Scunthorpe earning money that can be spent taking their families out with money in their pockets.
Maggie Thatcher was happy to let UK heavy industries and manufacturers go to the wall because we could have a new future as “The service providers to Europe” she must be turning in her grave at the prospect of crashing out of Europe, the future of the UK lay within the EU as far as she was concerned and was not concerned about crippling UK industry with high interest rates that stopped investment.
In the brave new post Brexit UK if there is not a economic base of heavy industry and manufacturing the rest of the economy will wilt and die
The Sirius Minerals project may contribute £2.3 billion a year to the UK GPD one of the recent investors who now own a significant part of the company is the Norwegian State Wealth Fund it is going to be contributing to state pensions in Norway when it is up and running as well supporting UK pensioners and state funded services.
Projects such as this are vital to the future of the UK, but because the news is filled with Brexit stories most of the people in the UK don’t even know about it. The sooner all this Brexit stupidity is stopped so that the government and people can focus on really getting on with building up the UK economy and becoming the major player within the EU the better.
Nationalisation and government grants to support British Steel are not going to help to get the steel and products made with it into the USA, Trump will just raise the tariffs above the current 25% or ban them altogether.
I not sure what the answer is other than creating a healthy economy with manufacturers that will buy British Steel, but I cannot foresee that happening at the moment.
A few weeks ago I went to South Wales to do a small electrical job and after I finished I called in at the Aberdulais tin plate works
Tin plate was developed in South Wales in the 1800’s then in the 1890’s the Americans introduced tariffs to protect their own tin plate industry that had been built up using the Welsh technology, the introduction of the tariffs crippled the Welsh tin plate industry as it could no longer be exported to America at competitive prices.
Over a hundred years later we are being told the this country’s future lies with exporting to countries outside of the EU such as America, history may tell us that that is a fantasy.
