Government considers nationalising British Steel
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7vnz4jy97no
Posted by GeoWa
Government considers nationalising British Steel
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c7vnz4jy97no
Posted by GeoWa
23 Comments
>Within weeks, they’ll be reopening the shipyard
And notifying the next of kin once again
If they wanna boost defence industry we need the domestic industry to support it, that starts with Steel
Why didn’t they save Port Talbot? The steel made there could be used for armour plate. We also had secondary furnaces for specialist alloys. The Scunthorpe plant has a beam and rail mill so not as useful for military purposes.
that does make practical sense as the company that owned it are shutting it down, honestly it’s probably cheaper for the owners to give it to the state than shut it down
Holy shit, my dad’s job might be safe under labour? Bullshit
Interesting! I’m not a Tory, nor am I Labour but the conservatives have consistently kept on bailing out British Steel and put food on my dad’s plate. Politically and economically, it was best to let it die
HOWEVER, nationalising British Steel would be a great way to start rebuilding our defense sector and broader building initiatives. Port Talbot would’ve also been useful for this too.
Interesting move… It would point towards the UK becoming more independent hopefully, which, while I’m big into global cooperation, isn’t a bad thing either
It’s also a great rhetorical move “Labour Supports British Steel workers” is a headline that could make someone’s career in government
I’m very very very interested to see how this plays out
Just shut it down if it’s not competitive and has to rely on taxpayer money to operate, we can just import Steel from our allies like Australia, EU, and US.
It can also help towards UK Net Zero 2050 target by lowering UK emissions.
Yes port Talbot manufactured Super Bainite Steel for use in defence,it’s excellent for armour plating purposes.
Now the global order has completely shifted hopefully now we can acknowledge that outsourcing all the things we need to be an independent nation was completely stupid.
Even if it’s not currently profitable some things are just in the national interest.
Imagine if we owned the only steel producing factory in Russia. Even if they forcibly seized back control as soon as war became inevitable. Just imagine how much we could have undermined and sabotaged their industrial base in anticipation.
The entire war economy could be completely crippled before they even knew what was happening.
Unfortunately I think this is something they are going to have to do.
Scunny with the last blast furnaces still running in the UK. If you want to make your own virgin steel and be sure of the source and quality then you need them. There are technologies coming that can produce virgin steel without the need for the BF processes but they can’t make in quantity that would be workable yet. So the old fashioned way it is.
Otherwise you’re left with electric arc furnaces melting scrap or slabs from elsewhere…which might be fine if you can guarantee the quality and ensure no one else knows what grades/mixes/what you’re up to (if military).
Rock and hard place…I can ask my dad what British Steel was like back in the day. He doesn’t have a kind word to say about it. Hence he left for the middle east, which is where most of the people who wanted to get on and actually graft went.
British steel is a very important resource iirc, very few places have a similar quality, and we’re most likely going to need it in the future.
Should be a priority, not producing our own steel is absolutely crazy
Good. Never should’ve sold it off
Likewise Water and the National Grid
I’ve always believed those plus transport and telecom infrastructure should be state owned. Happy to have private companies provide some competition, but total privitsation was always a bad idea
Steel might be uneconomical, but sometimes necessities are. And for defence and infrastructure, national security should take priority – that means being self sufficient and subsidies if needed. Letting the market decide with everything is delusional economics which I genuinely can’t believe people have bought into. It’s just naivety or greed.
Where’s the money going to come from to buy out the current owners? Then you have a government that cant find its arse with both hands running a complex industrial business. So it’ll be subsidies… didn’t go well last time, it’ll be more of the same. How about fixing the insane power costs and make not just the steel business but all manufacturing viable again?
I feel like there’s a bunch of Judas Priest jokes in there…
They could refuse the government and just kill the company to make their offshore plant more profitable by gobbling the current customer base.
i think that would be a great idea
I’m all for it
Yeah they’re considering it. Considering it and then discarding the idea in favour of handing to the Yanks or some shit.
Are they considering it like they considered nationalising British energy during the election campaign for it to turn into a whimper? Kier really backtracked on that.
Then they laughed and laughed, and asked for a bit more subsidy for all the steel firms to keep them afloat while they make obscene profits, and pay their CEO and the board a bonus.
Should never have been bloody privatised in the first place.
They ought to at least be making plans.
Young Nigel would be happy with that.
That would be a good idea, so ofc there’s no way that they will actually do it.
If we have to import the ore anyway to turn into steel, we might as well import the steel. It’s hardly self reliant if the time comes we need to be independant.
They’ll be on strike before the deal is done anyway, like British Leyland or the train ‘drivers’ union. Done so badly that private companies will undercut them