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The government has announced its intention to protect the steel industry of the United Kingdom in order to guarantee its long-term future because it faces the impact of potential rates.
The steel plan will include measures that seek to reduce the cost of production and encourage the use of domestic steel in infrastructure projects.
He also hopes to protect the United Kingdom Steel from “unfair negotiation practices abroad”, in particular the counter-deputness by cheaper suppliers.
The announcement comes a few days after US President Donald Trump said he imposed a 25% rate on all steel imports from March 12 – something that the British sector feared would cost him millions of businesses .
Affairs Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has launched a government -plane consultation for steel to examine the long -term problems with which the industry faces, after ministers are committed to providing up to 2.5 billion Sterling books for support.
Although the consultation does not directly deal with threat tariffs could appear in the sector, Reynolds said that financial support from the steel industry was “to protect our industrial heart, maintain jobs and stimulate growth”.
Shadow secretary Andrew Griffith said that “uncertainty” that the steel industry had faced due to American rates was something that the government “was entirely silent when they should rather speak to United States, our nearest trade partner “.
The Steel Plan will address problems that “have retained industry for too long,” said the business and trade department (DBT).
These include:
Identify opportunities to extend steel production to use the use of steel manufactured in the United Kingdom in public infrastructure projects, allowing scrap treatment facilities in electric arc overalls, which are less with high energy intensity than the high stoves and remove the need for high carbon coke
The consultation will also examine electricity costs for steel companies “to make the United Kingdom competitive on a global scale”, and how to protect the sector from unfair negotiation practices abroad, as cheap imports flooding the market, added the DBT.
The announcement does not directly deal with the potential impact of Trump’s pricing plans at this stage, and it does not include a firm commitment to reduce energy bills.
The government previously declared that it would not immediately retaliate at the prices announced by Trump, despite many in the steel industry calling for Great Britain to join the EU and Canada to threaten reciprocal measures.
Reynolds told BBC earlier this week that the United Kingdom had a solid argument to avoid import taxes – which, according to Trump, would be applied “without exception or exemptions” – because British exports to the States – United were small compared to other nations and steel were used in areas such as defense.
UK Steel, which represents the industry, said that prices would be a “devastating blow” which would harm the contribution of 400 million pounds in the sector to the United Kingdom-US trade.
The United Kingdom is not a large supplier of steel in the United States, the country representing around 10% of exports in British steel.
But there are concerns within the industry that prices could not only hinder exports to the United States, but also lead to an excess of “spilled” steel in the United Kingdom.
This could happen if other countries that were no longer exported to the United States decide to unload steel at cheaper prices, which could potentially lead to British thinness.
The government hopes that its plan will ensure jobs in the steel industry of the United Kingdom and will ensure its future.
Financial support could benefit Scotland and regions such as Scanthorpe, Lincolnshire, Rotherham in southern Yorkshire and Redcar in North Yorkshire “which have a strong history of steel production,” said the DBT.
Reuters
Jonathan Reynolds consults ways to protect the British steel industry
Aid will be available through the National Wealth Fund, which is associated with the government with the private sector and local authorities to finance the infrastructure and other projects.
The DBT said that it was “wasting time” to support the United Kingdom Steel, pointing to the government’s support from Heathrow airport, which, according to it, would require 400,000 tonnes of steel.
The British steel industry has been faced with heavy job losses in recent years.
Tata Steel said that it replaced traditional stoves with an electric arc oven in its largest site in the United Kingdom in Port Talbot, Wales. The traditional subsidiary on the site ceased in September, which led to 2,800 job cuts.
British Steel announced in 2023 that he would close the high stoves in Scanthorpe and revealed plans to deploy an electric arc oven, which requires fewer workers to maintain it, with 3,000 jobs that should be chopped.
The GMB Syndicate said that the government’s plan to support the steel industry “besieged” provided funding “desperately necessary” after “years of soaking”.
“While the world becomes more volatile, the interior capacity of primary steel is vital for our economy and internal security,” added the national secretary of the union, Andy Prendergast.
Gareth Stace, Managing Director of UK Steel, said that the government’s commitment to industry was “both vital and welcome”.
The information collected in the consultation will be used to help form an “steel strategy”, to be launched in the spring.
Stace has added a robust strategy “has the power to reverse the drop in the sector, especially since we are faced with growing imports of imports benefiting from more favorable commercial conditions”.
Griffiths said he was impatiently waiting to see a detailed plan, but added “a clear part must be steps to reduce the cost of energy which places an intolerable constraint on British steel”.
