The collapse into administration of parts of steel processing firm Caparo on Monday followed the closure last month of the SSI steel plant at Redcar, with the loss of about 2,200 jobs. We can’t change the price of steel. “The European Commission needs to do much more to deal with unfairly traded imports – inaction threatens the future of the entire European steel industry”, the strongly-worded release said.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping is visiting the United Kingdom this week and Downing Street has said Prime Minister David Cameron will raise the issue with him during the visit.
Tata Steel is concentrating on higher-value markets with a focus on developing stronger and lighter products for its customers.
Quoting unnamed sources, Daily Telegraph reported that the company, which has 1,800 employees and operates from 20 sites, was poised to file for administration, a process that is an alternative to liquidation.
Steel industry lobbying groups and unions have called for government intervention, but mayoral economic adviser Gerard Lyons said: “Often in this situation it is hard to get quick wins, and if often if there are, they are expensive quick wins”.
The job losses are likely to have a knock-on impact to local economies, with supply chains also expected to be affected by the steel industry’s problems. “It is vitally important that Britain’s steel companies hold their nerve and that government works with unions and the industry to build a sustainable future for United Kingdom manufacturing with steel at its heart”.
On Friday, Business Secretary Sajid Javid said at a “steel summit” in Rotherham: ‘There is no magic bullet.
Tata is expected to close its steel plants in Cambuslang and Motherwell in an announcement later this morning which would end nearly 150 years of the industry in Scotland.
16 companies within the Caparo Industries Group are in administration, however three more Caparo Merchant Bar, Caparo India and Bomet SA “continue to operate normally” and are not in administration.
Earlier, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said China’s steel exports are “certainly one of the things we’ll be talking about”.
Britain’s government is under pressure to raise the issue of China selling steel at a loss on world markets.
In the 1970s, more than 200,000 people were employed in the United Kingdom steel sector, but the number now stands at just 30,000.
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“He needs to tell them that infrastructure projects will not be at the expense of United Kingdom industry and communities”.
