Skip to main content

The Observer view on British Steel: saved for now, but for how long? | Observer editorial

Governments of both colours bear responsibility for the sorry saga, which could have dire economic and defence consequences

The UK’s last two remaining blast furnaces have hovered on the brink of shutting down over the past week. It has emerged that Jingye, the Chinese owner of Scunthorpe-based British Steel, was poised to refuse to buy further supplies of the coke and iron ore required to keep them running, at which point it would not have been possible to restart them; effectively, a unilateral decision to put an end to Britain’s capacity to produce primary steel. In these circumstances, the government had no choice but to recall parliament for an emergency sitting to pass legislation to give business secretary Jonathan Reynolds the power to direct British Steel.

The UK is starting from a low steel-producing base: it produced just 7.2m tonnes in 2021, compared with 13.9m tonnes in France, 24.4m tonnes in Italy and 40.1m tonnes in Germany. If British Steel were to shut its furnaces, this would leave the UK as the only G7 nation without primary steel-making capacity, with significant economic and security consequences. A range of industries rely on steel: construction, defence, transport, green energy. Without British-produced steel, global giant ArcelorMittal would attain what the defence thinktank Rusi has described as a “virtual monopoly” in the production of structural steel building frames for the UK market. Network Rail sources about 95% of its track from Scunthorpe. Parts of the defence industry are heavily reliant on British-produced steel; 90% of the steel used in Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers was produced by Tata Steel at Port Talbot, for example.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/pkj6QFv
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Rico Lewis helped harden up Manchester City’s treble challenge | Jamie Jackson

Guardiola believes advent of the teenage talent sowed seeds of change that turned his side into champions again Mid-January, the Etihad Campus. Before Tottenham’s visit a discontented Pep Guardiola is addressing a Manchester City team meeting that includes Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Ederson. The champions are in second place, eight points behind Arsenal, each having played 18 games. Performances have dipped and so has the attitude of his players. The final match before the World Cup was a 2-1 home defeat by Brentford . Since the tournament, City have beaten Leeds and Chelsea, drawn with Everton and lost their previous outing , 2-1 at Manchester United. Seven points from 15 is not championship-defending form and, when being knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Southampton is factored in, Guardiola can see City’s campaign derailing. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/h8WjbMX
Post a Comment
Read more

Wandsworth escape accused says it was ‘foolish’ to jail him with his ‘skill set’

Daniel Khalife, 23, says he absconded because he was ‘terrified’ of being locked up with dangerous offenders A former British soldier has told a jury he did not hand himself in after he escaped from prison because he was “finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was” to imprison someone with his “skill set”. Daniel Khalife, 23, told the court he absconded from Wandsworth prison while on remand because he was “terrified” of being locked up with “serious sex offenders” and “terrorists” who wanted to kill him, and that he did not think his imprisonment would be in the public interest. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/vRZHkaw
Post a Comment
Read more

Bodies of Men: the love story taking on toxic masculinity in a time of war

Nigel Featherstone’s new novel tackles traditional conservatism and patriarchy through an unconventional romance How can you be a man and be anti-war? This is the question that Sydney-born novelist Nigel Featherstone, who is a pacifist, considered while he took up a three-month writing residency in a military library. He set out to discover what happens to very different expressions of masculinity placed under military pressure. “Australia does have a very defined, toxic brand of masculinity,” says the bespectacled Featherstone, seated by the window at his local pub facing the railway station at Goulburn, north of Canberra, while men on stools at the nearby bar sink beers and televisions on the walls screen horse racing results. Continue reading... from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2N8piOc
Post a Comment
Read more