British Steel on the verge of collapse

[Ming]

Great album though.

british steel judas priest - Google Search

 

[steeplejack]

British Steel considering halving workforce in Scunthorpe & losing £30 million / month

Weirdo Tata nonsense re : Port Talbot

 

[steeplejack]

British Steel to replace blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces- at a cost of 2,000 jobs. Also wants £500m of public money to do so.

 

[steeplejack]

My predicition: the Chinese cowboys will be out of town before little Rishi coughs up another half a billion.

 

[1927]

My predicition: the Chinese cowboys will be out of town before little Rishi coughs up another half a billion.

SO how many thousands will be out of work due to our drive to zero emissions while the rest of the world carries on regardless?

 

[steeplejack]

Well if these figures have any merit, 2,000. But the Tories will claim a win as they are re-introducing steel making to Redcar with an unspecified number of jobs. Cynical of me maybe to ponder the impending fate of an embattled arsenugget of a Tory MP for that constituency.

Amusing referece to the "nascent UK carbon capture industry" which makes the South Sea bubble look evidence based and realistic by comparison. Everyone knows it's a load of bollocks at present but for some reason people keep bringing it up as though it is actually worth something.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

SO how many thousands will be out of work due to our drive to zero emissions while the rest of the world carries on regardless?

That's not the relevant point here. The fact that British mills are still using blast furnaces in 2023 tells us a story about the lack of investment and support for the sector: first by BSC/the government and then the private sector and explains why the sector has declined both in terms of output and also employment.

Electric arc furnaces should have been installed in 1973, never mind 2023.

 

[steeplejack]

Disaster for Port Talbot. Blast furnaces closed by Tata with loss of 2,800 jobs.

Even more of a monotown than Scunthorpe & consequences will be terrible.

 

[hitmouse]

Anyone know much about this bit?

The company rejected a proposal put forward by the Community and GMB unions that would have kept the blast furnaces open, protecting jobs during the transition.

The two unions said that governments in France, Germany and Spain were all “committing billions to secure the future of their strategically important steel industries, and our government must show similar ambition”.

They added: “More than 3,000 jobs and the future of British steelmaking are at stake. It is an absolute disgrace that Tata Steel, and the UK government, appear intent on pursuing the cheapest instead of the best plan for our industry, our steelworkers and our country.

“It’s unbelievable any government would give a company £500m to throw 3,000 workers on the scrapheap, and our government must re-evaluate its miserly offer to support investment at Tata Steel.”

Community said the closure was “absolutely devastating” to the local economy and called Tata’s plan “decarbonisation on the cheap”.

Amid a schism between trade unions representing steelworkers, the GMB and Community also lashed out at Unite, which had put forward a separate £12bn plan to revive UK steelmaking over 12 years that they described as “discredited fantasy”.

Links to another article that expands on it a bit more: ‘A golden opportunity’: Port Talbot fights to keep its steelmaking tradition alive

Under Unite’s proposals, the government would invest £12bn over 12 years to spur a steel renaissance which, it says, would pay for itself in 10 years via increased tax receipts. Its plan would keep the blast furnaces open during a transition to fully decarbonised steelmaking involving electric arc furnaces and direct reduced iron furnaces (DRIs). DRIs can use green hydrogen – extracted from water using renewable energy – rather than gas, to make virgin steel.

Fellow steelworker unions the GMB and Community have previously put DRIs and electric arc furnaces at the heart of their own plan to save jobs at Port Talbot, a proposal that would keep a blast furnace running until 2032. But Unite’s plan is broader and, crucially, proposes a 40% subsidy for the crippling energy costs that have made UK steelmaking an exercise in burning money in recent years.

British manufacturers pay 86% more for their energy than competitors in Germany and 62% more than in France, and charges for connection to the National Grid are particularly high. The move to green steel will require even greater electricity usage, says Unite, so industry must be prioritised for upgraded connections to the grid.

I'm not an expert of the economics and logistics of steelmaking. As a general principle I'd usually tend to trust Unite more than the GMB, but also just god, if they can't agree a united front in opposition to the closure and are still sniping at each other (or at least one way), then that's not exactly confidence-inspiring.

 

[planetgeli]

Anyone know much about this bit?

Links to another article that expands on it a bit more: ‘A golden opportunity’: Port Talbot fights to keep its steelmaking tradition alive

I'm not an expert of the economics and logistics of steelmaking. As a general principle I'd usually tend to trust Unite more than the GMB, but also just god, if they can't agree a united front in opposition to the closure and are still sniping at each other (or at least one way), then that's not exactly confidence-inspiring.

I know a bit yes. I know the steel industry is vital to Port Talbot. And I know this.

The unions plan would mean no compulsory redundancies, albeit a loss of some 500 jobs. As opposed to 2800. I know the unions plans requires just an extra £183 million from the government, or, god forbid, Tata themselves, to implement the plan.

And I know Tata have just increased and renewed their sponsorship of the IPL (tedious limited overs cricket league that is there to make big amounts of money for small amounts of people) to the tune of £240 million pounds.

So for Tata it was a choice between high flying status (and high flying capitalism in sport) vs the saving of a community in South Wales. And to the government it was a choice between the cheapest or the best plan that saves jobs.

 

[planetgeli]

Here is the pdf for the multi union plan if anyone is interested.

https://www.gmb.org.uk/assets/media/documents/the-multi-union-plan-for-tata-steel-uk-(final).pdf

 

[SpookyFrank]

SO how many thousands will be out of work due to our drive to zero emissions while the rest of the world carries on regardless?

How many people will be out of work if half the country is underwater and the other half is on fire?

 

[1927]

How many people will be out of work if half the country is underwater and the other half is on fire?

That aint happening anytime soon, and even if UK was net zero we'd still make very little difference.

 

[ska invita]

Is this the last steel plant in Britain?

 

[steeplejack]

Is this the last steel plant in Britain?

No, Scunthorpe and smaller related plants are still open. For how long is anyone's guess. Scunthorpe's Chinese owner- in charge barely 2.5 years- has already gone to government with the begging bowl and appear to be adopting a salami slicing approach to reducing the workforce. Lots of talk of the famous old blast furnaces being closed and replaced with electric arcs.

 

[steeplejack]

I know twitter threads annoy people on here but this one is useful and puts a bit of context to why steel is so embattled in the UK.

 

[rutabowa]

No, Scunthorpe and smaller related plants are still open. For how long is anyone's guess. Scunthorpe's Chinese owner- in charge barely 2.5 years- has already gone to government with the begging bowl and appear to be adopting a salami slicing approach to reducing the workforce. Lots of talk of the famous old blast furnaces being closed and replaced with electric arcs.

when I moved away I'd say about half my friends worked in the steel works... and about 3/4 of friends parents. the last remaining one working there left about a year ago, so none of them do now.

 

[Riklet]

It's a crazy situation. No steel being produced nationally for years or even ever again is a catastrophic error of judgement.

All achieved with hundreds of millions of government subsidies and bailouts.

 

[tim]

SO how many thousands will be out of work due to our drive to zero emissions while the rest of the world carries on regardless?

I see you got the memo from Tufton Street.

 

[steeplejack]

“Material Uncertainties” give rise to concerns over British Steel’s future.

All not well with the accounts it seems.

 

[1927]

I see you got the memo from Tufton Street.

I'm sure the people of Port Talbot will thank you for that contribution.

 

[nogojones]

Is this the last steel plant in Britain?

It depends on what you mean by steel plant. I can't really speak for England (as I don't know their ends, or care much for England), however in Wales it was the last blast furnaces producing steel from scratch.

There's still Tremorfa Steel Works in Cardiff (part of Celsa) producing soft 4018/9, mesh steel from scrap in a melt shop, but it's just the shit, soft stuff that gets re-rolled into rebar and other mesh (about a million tonnes a year the last time I paid attention) with rod, bar, section and contistretch mills attached.

Any high tensile stuff tends to be imported for re-rolling.

 

[steeplejack]

The totally mad thing about Scunthorpe is that it produces most of Britain's rails. So if Scunthorpe goes under, then import some cheap crap from abroad which adds transport and logistics CO2 consequences on top of manufacturing.

Both Scunthorpe and Port Talbot are vital infrastructure plants that need to be supported not only with government help (in a strategic and planned way rather than the recent "oh shit it's going bust in an election year" piecemeal bail out / government commissioners type way), but also given first refusal in major capital projects based here. Scunthorpe steel is everywhere from our railways to the Shard.

Yet as we see from Port Talbot, government is quite happy to be fleeced for hundreds of millions by unscrupulous steel competitors from India and China who don't really wish our economy well, and after paying out that all that money, then"let the market decide".

Crazy. What price an industrial strategy?

 

[Serge Forward]

Still had a steelworks in Stocksbridge last time I looked.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Some good resources available here: https://www.unitetheunion.org/campaigns/the-fight-for-steel

The Unite campaign demands (apparently endorsed by Labour to some extent) a programme to expand steel making - highlighting rising demand, the strategic importance of steel (which never went away, we just collectively assumed imports would do the job), its centrality to any industrial strategy worth the name as steeplejack discusses up thread and also exposes the wealth and profits of Tata.

As Sharon Graham says, the Government position - to give Tata £1/2 Billion to cut jobs, reduce capacity and flood the UK with imported steel is risible even for these free market junkies.

The GMB/Community campaign is for slower, better managed and collectively bargained decline. The Unite campaign is better, but doesn’t go far enough. Tata should be told to hand Port Talbot back without compensation, there should be the creation of a publicly owned steel sector - with a plan to convert blast furnaces to electric furnaces and using subsidised electricity paid for out of the excess profits of the suppliers until Labour’s publicly owned supplier is set up.

 

[ska invita]

id also imagine from any potential war economy moment you'd want to have native steel production? I've no idea about this kind of thing but i would imagine the state would want certain facilities as a matter of "national security"?

 

[Smokeandsteam]

id also imagine from any potential war economy moment you'd want to have native steel production? I've no idea about this kind of thing but i would imagine the state would want certain facilities as a matter of "national security"?

Historically speaking that’s correct. But this lot couldn’t run a bath never mind a war economy. They’d wait for the hidden hand of the market to do it for them

 

[steeplejack]

Historically speaking that’s correct. But this lot couldn’t run a bath never mind a war economy. They’d wait for the hidden hand of the market to do it for them

Or they'd be absolutely fine with "choosing" to have no steel production

 

[steeplejack]

Still had a steelworks in Stocksbridge last time I looked.

very true- interesting history of Stocksbridge steel plant below, now owned by Liberty Steel.

The reason I haven't mentioned it is it is now a manufacturer of smaller / specialist products rather than the traditional blast furnaces, as I understand it.

The booklet describes how private capital consolidated interests, then the era of public ownership, after which private capital has once again consolidated to strip the assets clean and run down the industry. Some might find it interesting.

There's still smaller support / infrastructure businesses in Rotherham (Liberty also run a specialist steel bar makers there), and on Teesside (British Steel heavy prduct distribution site).

As of 2020 there were just over 33000 jobs in UK steel. I'd wager in the 50s and 60s close to that number would have been employed by the defunct steelworks in Corby (former Stewart's and Lloyds) and in Scunthorpe alone.

 

[equationgirl]

There's still smaller steel plants in the Glasgow area, run by liberty steel. As best I can tell.