British Steel flotation 1988
What a terrible few weeks for British steel manufacturing. The SSI Redcar plant has closed with a loss of 2,200 jobs, Tata Steel has announced 1,200 job losses at its plants in Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire and Caparo, based in Oldbury, has now bought in the administrators. This issue is becoming so severe that as many as 1 in 6 British steel workers now face redundancy. Unions warn are warning that ‘there will be no British industry in a year’ if Caparo is allowed to collapse. The knock on effects of these events could have a disastrous effects to UK industry as a whole.
Alarmingly the future of British steel seems to be at the mercy of the Chinese. The only realistic short term solution is for David Cameron and George Osborne to get on the phone to the Chinese president and plead for him to stop the devastating impact of ‘dumping’ huge amounts of cheap steel onto the international markets.
However, it might be suggested that China could greatly benefit from closing British Steel for good. Lets face it, in the short-term, HS2, Trident and the Hinckley power stations are likely to require a massive amount of steel over the coming years. If there is no domestic production guess where it will need to come from!? In a strange set of coincidences, the Chinese will likely win the contract for HS2 and will not only build but they will also own the Hinckley power station. I would also be willing to bet that as soon as British steel has been killed off the price of Chinese steel rockets… or am I just being cynical?
With thousands of families effected, and whole communities set to be decimated, the government’s recent ‘March of the Makers’ and ‘Northern Powerhouse’ initiates are starting to look a little meaningless. Certainly something more needs to be done. We have recently saved the bankers with an unprecedented bail out perhaps it is now time to save British steel? [But then David Cameron’s mates tend not to be steel workers, so don’t hold your breath].
We have plenty of money for investment, over 12 billion per year so we can invest in our selves and all we have to do to get it is leave the EU !
Yet again we are saddled with an awfull, gutless, treasonous government.
Storemans perspective in 2017 when hs2 needs some metal:-
You need some steel mate?
Aint got none, can’t get none.
Wot, you want british, aint ‘ad any for years mate.
(by the time hs2 needs it)
later, in 2018 A spokesperson said we had to cancel hs2 because we couldnt afford the foreign price of steel… bit of a blow, the bill for the contracts cancellation was higher than the completion cost of hs2…..made port talbot look like a bargain really, but hs2 was only a pipe dream after all.
Still, at least we saved some noncompetitive, irresponsible, reckless, dishonest oh and unprofitable banks 🙂