So the government has failed to negotiate a settlement with the Chinese owners of Scunthorpe blast furnaces and the nearby rolling mill. The UK does need to keep a steel industry.
The government should buy the whole works and land for a token £1, sparing the current owner closure and redundancy costs.There might need to be recourse to them if a new operator did need to make redundancies.The Chinese company would remain responsible for its debts and past losses. The assets would be unencumbered.
It should put out to tender a contract to operate and manage the works, accepting the least cost/ best bid.
It should encourage the nationalised Network Rail to carry on buying track from there. It should encourage the use of steel for its construction projects to use steel from there. It should use UK steel for all main defence purposes.
April 12, 2025
It is not as simple as you suggest, even were the Chinese happy to leave for £1.00 and no responsibilities.
The key to a successful steel industry is abundent reliable power. The creators of nett zero have long fled the field, their successor mad red Ed must be given his P45. Nett zero must meet its end with a stake in its heart.
Immediatly the cost of energy must be slashed to what the US industry pays. The following day we must drill drill and frack baby frack. Whitehaven must open to produce the coking coal we need. The labarynthe that ensures that everyone but the end user profits from UK sources of power must end. It is not a gifted product to be sold on the world market for the UK to buy back at unstable world prices. Only politicians with oil shares could have dreamt up such an income stream for themselves. If not please explain how it came about.
Finally gift its management to Nippon Steel or one of many other successful companies in Japan or the USA. Do not let government, the civil service, or any new post natal quango anywhere near it, because in the UK they are death and the killer of worlds.
April 12, 2025
Totally agree Agricola but the government ideology won’t allow it.
April 12, 2025
This crisis could and should have been anticipated. Starmer is reacting to events, not controlling them. It would be easy to simply blame Moronic Miliband for this but successive governments have led us to this place. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s time to get real, focus on survival and discard the non-essential. They include Net Zero, the ECHR/Human Rights Act, a good chunk of the Benefits bill (cut back to time limited safety net), the Quangos and a large chunk of the Civil Service. I’m not holding my breath.
April 12, 2025
Yes politicians of all apparent colours are involved. It was consocialists who were a party to the deal that handed our virgin steel industry to The Chinese who in turn demonstrated that any agreements were at their convienience. Recall Hongkong.
Resolution is in the hands of current government as they control the cost of power, the availability of coking coal, and in many respects the home market for steel. The more I learn, we owe the chinese government nothing.
April 12, 2025
@ IanT
Nail, hammer, head…
April 12, 2025
+++
April 12, 2025
Whilst I agree with much of you say Agricola I am afraid politicians and their policies got us into this mess, and now they think they have a solution to get us out of it, I have little confidence I am afraid.
Yes of course we should be making our own steel, much as we should have supported many other industries that have now disappeared or are in a mess (water, electricity being two prime examples) but that means almost a complete reverse of past policies put forward by all Past Political Parties.
Afraid I have lost hope with most of our current Mp’s who appear to lack any understanding at all of commerce or the repercussions of the polices they put forward and support.
Net Zero will eventually be the biggest and complete disaster for this country.
April 12, 2025
@agricola
Great suggestions.
Unfortunately Labour knows best and don’t listen.
Today they will talk more about how to PR Spin this than solve it.
No surprises this has come to the April fools big time.
I see local SME s closing down or change hands as they throw in the towel.
Rachel, Red Ed, Rayner etc just pantomime double speak Pro-Business.
Donald’s fast moving too fast for Starmer who hasn’t a clue.
April 12, 2025
agricola :
Agreed.
Whilst only the CCC is still promoting the false idea that elecricity is cheaper than hydrocarbons, DESNZ (Ed Miliband), Ofgem and Mission Zero now knowing this to be incorrect have switched tack to saying that renewables will give us energy security by no longer relying on petrostate dictators for our gas.
The North Sea still provides nearly 50% of our gas (which together with fracking could provide 100% of our needs) and the majority of the balance comes from Norway and the USA.
So Ed Miliband and his comrades are swapping our energy security from gas with the reliance on China, a state described by our security services as “hostile”, for all the wind turbines, solar panels, and metals and minerals needed for batteries, generators, motors and cabling. Note that renewable infrastructure lasts only 20 years so those built for the Clean Power 2030 project will need complete replacement for the Net Zero 2050 project and their low energy density, together with enormous lengths of undersea cabling makes them virtually unprotectable against hostile action.
April 12, 2025
I wonder if he has worked out how much if our electricity supply depends on petrostate Norway. It’s gas to fuel the power stations, plus the 1.4GW direct North Sea Link interconnector and the interconnectors from Denmark, Netherlands and Germany that depend on Norwegian supply.
April 12, 2025
I can’t think of anything better than the Government owning an industry that is desperate for plentiful cheap energy.
Never allow the Chinese access to anything – why do you want to give it to yet another Chinese company
April 13, 2025
Indeed has the moronic Ed Miliband (PPE) resigned yet? Together Chris Stark (law), Emma Pinchbeck (classics) and the rest of our energy “experts”?
April 12, 2025
A Cabinet reshuffle leaving Milliband out would help as well as his drive to destroy all our industries with his save the planet on our own plan is not helpful. Importing coal to the U.K. what a nonsense. We need to save our steel industry and make it prosper. Indeed we need to save all our industry from net Zero zealots.
April 12, 2025
They shouldn’t encourage Network Rai, they should mandate it as with all state bodies. Britain first. Other countries in the EU and around the world do it. It’s just the cretins in Westminster who want to put us last
As for the French demanding unfettered access to our fish in exchange for a security pact i would ban all French boats until the channel paddlers stop.
April 12, 2025
Net Zero is one reason but many others.
Net Zero is being used as an EXCUSE for Tories (and Labour / Lib Dems) making big mistakes in the past over manufacturing / high tech industry (by being over-focused on the financial and consumer sectors). (But the main mistakes of Labour / Lib Dems are being focused on high taxation etc).
Capitalism needs a strong manufacturing base (but not in a socialist sense) and even more so (and related to a degree) a strong high tech base too (like Silicon Valley).
Not only does breadth and depth of economy add wealth and stability to our economy, it’s also necessary as all these different industries are all inter-related to an important degree.
April 12, 2025
Indeed.
I see that Kemi says this is entirely a problem caused by Labour! Well hardly net zero and climate alarmism came from Cameron, Boris, May, Greta disciple Gove, power station exploder Sharma, Sunak… and all the parties other than Reform. Kemi is still a net zero fan herself just a tiny bit more slowly than Labour!
April 12, 2025
Even Thatcher fell for it at one point!
April 12, 2025
But she soon retracted her views because she was a Chemist not a PPE graduate.
April 12, 2025
Indeed, indeed. Which government allowed a Chinese entity to own our steel manufacturing! The mind boggles.
I’m surprised ‘they’ didn’t sell our steel capacity to Germany between WW1 and WW2.
April 12, 2025
MW :
Yes, and the Chinese were only interested in temporary ownership in order to pick up any steel making secrets or IP that they hadn’t already stolen.
April 12, 2025
Xi Jinping fighting for China interests
Trump fighting for USA interests
Is Anybody fighting for UK interests ???
April 12, 2025
PS : Just watched the BBC news. I didn’t realise that 40% of the workforce at the Scunthorpe Steel Works was Chinese!
April 12, 2025
@Mike Critical strategic error letting a “Basic Industry” (similar to the Coal industry ) be run down to just one company and then sell it to a potential enemy. It’s called a basic industry because so many other industries rely heavily on its products, just like Coal, Oil and gas.
Dumber and Starmer.
Labour, business and common sense don’t go well together.
April 12, 2025
Exactly!
Of course communism is a peaceful and friendly mindset – just like Islam.
April 12, 2025
LL :
Agreed.
The UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group 1 (“The Science”) ‘s latest (AR6) report shows in Table 12 of Chapter 12 there are no signals for climate change (precipitation, droughts, storms etc) other than some mild warming which UAH satellite data shows to be 0.14 degrees C per decade. The same report on P95 states that a doubling of CO2 causes a warming of 1.2 degrees C. Happer & Wijngaarden, using the IPCC’s greenhouse gas radiative warming theory, calculate a warming of 0.7 degrees C This is because of a phenomenon known as saturation which is simply that there is already sufficient CO2 in the atmosphere to be able to absorb all the available infrared (IR) radiation emitted by the planet and hence adding more CO2 makes little if any difference. Shula & Ott have further demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally that the IPCC’s radiative theory is entirely invalid bcause the IR energy emitted by the planet and absorbed by greenhouse gases is not radiated back towards the planet (a phenomenon which has never been observed or measured, just modelled) but is lost through collisions with nitrogen and oxygen molecules. Heat loss from the surface is therefore mainly by convection and latent heat (weather) where CO2 is a trace gas at 0.04% of the atamosphere.
April 12, 2025
I repeat: pyrgeometers at the surface (or anywhere in the atmosphere, on planes, balloons or rockets) measure the total downward long wave radiation, while a spectrometer at the surface measures the same downward radiation but in small intervals, some of them with a precision allowing to distinguish the characteristics of the absorption lines (position, intensity, width). And that is not modelling but measurements. That’s in particular how the characteristics of pollution can be defined measuring the presence and characteristics of new polluting gases (CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, CCl4, CF6, …)
When are you going to take a basic 101 course on spectroscopy/radiation transfer? They are available as MOOCs (coursera, edX, FutureLearn, …), last three to six weeks (10 h/week), and are usually free if one just wants to follow them and does not want a certificate of completion with the mark obtained to the weekly tests.
April 12, 2025
Most of us don’t want to be indoctrinated – even at a bargain price Hefner.
April 13, 2025
What a ridiculous comment Lynn. Where is the indoctrination saying that a quantity has been regularly measured for years when someone else says ‘the phenomenon has never been observed or measured’.
If as said by Shula & Ott (and OR) there is no downward long wave radiation (DLWR) at the surface how can they justify the present temperature at the surface of the globe. As a globally averaged quantity the DLWR is 342 W/m2 (from measurements, see the Baseline Surface Radiation Network, or K.Wang & R.E. Dickinson, 2013, ‘Global atmospheric downward longwave radiation at the surface from ground-based observations, satellite retrievals and reanalyses’, Rev.Geophys. 51, 150-185, doi.org/10.1002/rog.20009.
Without it, just taking into account the shortwave radiation at the surface (185 W/m2) and the loss by the latent (-82 W/m2) and sensible (-21 W/m2) heats (that S&O say replace the DLWR but funnily for them are loss terms) the temperature at the surface, instead of being 288 K, would be (E = sigma T^4 so T = (E/sigma)^0.25) 230 K ie -48 degC.
Whoa, I should not forget my chapka and my mittens.
April 12, 2025
The second law of thermodynamics requires that there cannot be a measurable flow of energy from the colder atmosphere to the warmer planet. It’s not possible that the IPCC’s downward radiation can be twice that of the incoming radiation from the sun. Pyrgeometers are measuring local thermally excited emission from greenhouse gases (GHGs) where the photons can exit to space to cool the atmosphere if the GHGs are sufficiently high in the atmosphere but cannot produce a downward energy flux because thermalisation increases with atmospheric density.
April 13, 2025
aap.com.au 14/04/2023 ‘Climate sceptics on wrong side of thermodynamics law’.
‘The greenhouse effect and the 2nd law of thermodynamics’ 29/06/2023 skepticalscience.com
‘Atmospheric thermodynamics’, P.Bechtold, 05/2015, ecmwf.int
How funny that wherever one is on the globe it is possible to measure the profile of solar radiation and infrared radiation via spectrometers, pyranometers (for shortwave radiation), pyrgeometers (for long wave radiation) or via the spectroradiometers embarked on satellites, if such fluxes are ‘not possible’?
More funny is that the Shula and Ott model by denying a long wave downward radiation at the surface would make (if they were honest enough to pull their argument to its logical conclusion) to a much colder temperature at the surface.
Even funnier is that the models of Wijngaarden & Happer or Shula & Ott have never been operationally applied in a meteorological context whereas the supposedly wrong radiation transfer theory (plus fluid dynamics and the rest of thermodynamics) has been successfully applied in all meteorological centres since the 1960s.
Rather sad that people cannot accept when they are wrong (specially when it is clear they cannot even handle the ‘arguments’ of their preferred theory) but consistent with other topics often discussed on this blog, among them privatisation of water distribution and treatment of wastewater.
April 13, 2025
One of millions of things that affect the World’s climate the CO2 effect is grossly exaggerated not even the main greenhouse gas which is water vapour. We have had ice ages with far higher levels of CO2. Prof. William Happer has perhaps the best explanation on this. Even a a doubling of CO2 is not a problem. Indeed a net good on balance.
April 12, 2025
I remain to be convinced by the Shula and Ott analysis. Molecular kinetic energies have a Maxwell-Boltzmann probability distribution, and collisions work to maintain it, so if one CO2 molecule gives up energy in collisions others will gain it. About 9.5% of CO2 has sufficient energy to emit a photon corresponding to its scissor vibration at 667cm^-1 or about 20THz at ground level conditions of 298K. That emission is always going to be in a random direction, both up, down and sideways. The probabilities of collisions and photon absorption and emission are all well known physics and are accounted for by Wijngaarden and Happer who divide the atmosphere into 500 layers up to 80km, as is the change in atmospheric density, pressure and temperature. They do show quite high levels of absorption at the lowest altitudes close to ground, but it is not total. Diffusion of kinetic energy through the air also occurs. That does not involve convection currents. There is some contribution from convection, but a study of the weather tells you that there are also downdrafts.
April 13, 2025
Yes, but to have downdrafts one needs updrafts first, and in any thunderstorms if the area covered by downdrafts is generally wider than the area covered by updrafts the magnitude of the upward motion is (according to a number of studies by Doppler lidars and radars, see eg Wang et al. 2020, ‘Updraft and downdraft core size ) is at least 20% stronger than that of downdrafts.
April 13, 2025
Sorry, too quick .., Wang et al., 2020 ‘Updraft and downdraft core size and intensity as revealed by radar wind profiler: MCS observations and idealised model comparisons’, J.Geophys.Res. 125, 11 doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031774.
April 12, 2025
Good morning.
Whilst I do not disagree I am surprised to see that you are NOW in favour of some sort of Nationalisation. ie Using taxpayers money (even if it is nominally just £1) to save an industry rather than leave it to market forces.
I am not trying to put words into your mouth, just pointing out that, when it comes to various industries such as water and other utilities, we cannot ideologically apply a ‘one fits all’ approach.
April 12, 2025
Well it’s not just £1 of taxpayer’s money, John’s proposal is to write off all their debts and losses too. Reported losses are £700,000 per day (including debt interest payments). And in return for all that his proposal is that the company gets handed over to some other private sector company to run and they get to keep any profits that are subsequently made (there won’t be any of course, the taxpayer will have to bail them out in due course too).
Got my Thames Water bill this week. Up 60%.
Reply I do not support the state writing off any of the Chinese company debt !That is their problem.
April 12, 2025
If the Chinese have to swallow losses on their financing of the plant they should be regarded as at least some sort of payment for the intellectual property and know-how they acquired.
April 12, 2025
I am more in favour of a sensible cheap reliable energy policy. This industry is being killed by moronic energy policies from serial governments.
April 12, 2025
I think the idea is to put it under private management. They will presumably include in their bid conditions to help ensure that the business does not continue to run up massive losses on the back of government imposts. It might be useful if the new management group had close links with the manufacture of specialist steels for aero engines and gas/steam turbines and nuclear containment vessels. Rolled steel for vehicle manufacture needs a market, which would entail a complete reversal of policy for the motor industry. Building codes also need to be addressed since disapproval of concrete cuts the market for rebar. It is unclear what future lies for steel and glass designs. An integrated view of policy is needed.
April 12, 2025
Some figures on the insane energy, heat pump and EV car agenda.
About 74% of the UKs 28.4 M households are on mains gas circa 21 million plus more on oil, bottled gas and solid fuel.
A typical home on gas uses 2.7 MWH of electricity PA (300w average) and 11.5 MWh of gas PA
If all these homes switch fully to electricity for heat pumps, EVs, cooking, hot water the demand for electricity of these homes will rise to more like 10MW hours PA. Worse still the demand will mainly be on cold winter days so the power needed on this days might well be 20+ times higher than now.
So the Mad Miliband agenda is to waste all the 20 million existing gas boilers and the very valuable gas grid, replace with 20 million+ heat pumps and millions of EVs. Then Increase wind and solar by about 20 times current, increase capacity of the electricity grid by circa 20 times to cope and waste all the gas grid! Plus the wind and solar will also need back up of gas, coal, Drax wood burning generators!
Or we could just frack and keep using gas! The cost of the above must be something like £150,000 per home about 20 times more than just fracking our huge natural gas resources. The agenda is insane! Plus it is killing all our industrial base.
April 12, 2025
Currently solar and wind are supplying just under 20% of our, currently rather low, electricity demand. So only about 4% of our total energy demand. Miliband think he can increase this by 25 times than connect all these dispersed and intermittent generating devices to a grid that can cope? What is his cost and time estimates for this? He is a very dangerous, deluded fool or he is perhaps just corrupt & evil?
April 12, 2025
Agreed. The whole approach is lunacy and doesn’t stack up on any rational assessment. Why hasn’t the mainstream media, opposition and industry explained this?
You omit to mention the additional power demand from a 700k p.a. net migration inflow. Shouldn’t Miliband be demanding this fall so we get to net zero faster?
April 12, 2025
Not only killing our industrial base, killing off the older population and removing cars from the vast majority.
Tuesday wind was providing 0.5gw so 20 times that would be 10gw and as demand would be over 100gw, where would the other 90gw come from after Milibrain has closed all the CCGT plants.
April 12, 2025
I was talking with a chap from Didcot who told me that when the coal fired power station there was closed some years back there was much publicity that it was a major step towards a cleaner environment. The station was demolished (with four workers losing their lives) and the generating sets loaded onto large lorries and taken away. He said that those same generating sets are now producing electricity in a coal fired power station in Ghana!
April 12, 2025
Well at least they are helping Ghana!
April 12, 2025
Well when I’m freezing next winter I’m sure that knowledge will warm the cockles of my heart.
April 13, 2025
More jumper, thermals, an electric blanket and one room with a wood fire? Wood that you have collected, chopped and dried yourself perhaps?
April 12, 2025
LL :
Agreed.
In addition the local grid has only a capacity of 1-2KW/household CONTINUOUSLY so for everyone to have a heat pump, ev and use ToUTs (Time of Use Tariffs) apart from no energy during rolling blackouts, is sumply impossible without also upgrading all the local grids as well as the National Grid and of course all the additional renewable electricity generating overbuild….
April 12, 2025
So national steel production is essential for our national security. Where does the coal and iron ore come from?
April 12, 2025
Quite. It’s that pesky joined-up thinking again! I recently tried to find where we get our coking coal, I found only one in the UK that is only a ‘maybe’ producer.
https://www.westcumbriamining.com/woodhouse-colliery/
The UK’s first new deep coking coal mine in 30 years, a project called Woodhouse Colliery (also known as Whitehaven coal mine), was proposed in Whitehaven, Cumbria. It was approved by the government but faced legal challenges and has been blocked by the High Court.
There was an Scunthorpe employee on one news channel saying they cannot get good coking coal, they are currently using little more than ‘dust’, which causes damage over time to the smelters. Goodness, could the Chinese owners be looking for a way to kill off the facility?
April 12, 2025
Cumbria used to be the place to go for iron ore as well.
https://nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/iron-mining-in-the-british-isles/cumberland-furness-iron-mines/florence-mine/
April 12, 2025
The Whitehaven coal mine could produce 2.78 million tonnes of coal annually. The UK imports 3.4 million tonnes of coal annually, so opening the mine would partially replace imports with the UK still needing to import more, assuming none of it was exported.
April 12, 2025
This would save CO2 too as less transport needed, should that bother you!
April 12, 2025
The UK sits on large deposits of iron ore as it does coal, gas, oil and many materials. It’s just become too expensive to mine because of cost or government bans.
April 12, 2025
Agree
April 12, 2025
“So the government has failed to negotiate a settlement with the Chinese owners of Scunthorpe blast furnaces and the nearby rolling mill.”
Presumably China does not want any steel industry in the UK.
April 12, 2025
Presumably China does not want any steel industry in the UK.
Or Labour/conservatives/greens/libdems they all believe and follow the flat earth net-zero crap, the sooner people wake up to the global bull£hi! under the guise of net-zero rubbish the better off we will all be
April 12, 2025
Indeed hopefully the trumps agenda will expose the net zero/climate alarmist vast exaggerations for what they are a religion, a scam and many people on the make.
April 12, 2025
China wants to shutdown all steel production in Europe, Microsoft thwarted them in France, Germany prevented them getting a toe hold, only the UK has let China and India control our destiny and look what’s happened at Port Talbot.
Some might say it was deliberate.
April 12, 2025
Micron
April 12, 2025
Scunthorpe loses £700,000 a day. How much of that is tax?
April 12, 2025
About £700,000
April 12, 2025
Miliband has made a big song and dance about his Clean Industry Bonus programme for the AR7 CFD round, supposedly to encourage the development of domestic supply chains for wind farms. The most recent major wind farm to reach FID is Inch Cape who revealed a list of suppliers. The following are Chinese
Monopile (MP) foundations CWHI (GWSHI), Dajin Offshore
Transition pieces (TP) CWHI (GWSHI), CFHI (COOEC Fluor)
Jacket foundations CFHI (COOEC Fluor)
Export cables Ningbo Orient Cable
In addition it is likely that several of the vessels to be used in installation were built in Chinese boatyard, and there will be significant Chinese content in other items such as the turbines from Vestas. The blades will not be made at their Isle of Wight plant which only makes smaller diameters. They have two generator manufacturing locations – one in Travemünde, Germany, and the other in Taijin, China: the latter will have easier access to key Chinese items such as neodymium magnets and copper for the windings.
Incidentally the principal innovation in the design is the high wind cut-out speed of 31 m/sec (69mph) whereas previous designs cut out at 25 m/sec (56mph). Thus increases in capacity factor depend on very stormy weather. By being last man standing they might earn a better price in those hours. However they will be just as subject to curtailment, if not more so, in gale force conditions. Whether they will really prove able to survive the extra stresses of operating at higher wind speeds without incurring damage and wear that results in additional maintenance remains to be seen.
April 12, 2025
The Westminster Uni-Party and its obsession with Net Zero and de-industrialising has created this situation.
For 14 years the Not-a-Conservative-Party actively pursued the policy so I do hope no Tory MPs have the nerve to stand up and complain about the consequent destruction of British Steel.
At the same time as nationalising British Steel, Two-Tier should authorise the re-opening of the Coking Coal mine in Cumberland so that we don’t have to import coal, and if that causes Red Ed to resign as Minister for Destroying our Energy Security then so much the better.
April 12, 2025
Even if we no longer have iron we could still have bronze, or just copper, and failing that stone tools were pretty good. Just as long as we stop using fire, that was where we went so badly wrong all that time ago.
I do not actually mention the 2008 Climate Change Act in this letter to the Maidenhead Advertiser:
“According to James Aidan the previous government presided over a 17.5 per cent reduction in local government spending power.
(Viewpoint April 11 2025, “Funding cuts in time of increased demand “)
That is understandable, as central government has itself struggled with slow growth of the economy, and the tax base, since 2008.
From 1948 to 2008 the UK economy grew at an average rate of 2.7 per cent a year, but since 2008 it has been only 1.1 per cent.
(Viewpoint February 28 2025, “Looking back at 2008 break point on growth”)
GDP is 22 per cent lower than if the historical trend growth rate had persisted for the past 16 years, which is what was expected.
The problem started under the previous Labour government, when Gordon Brown was first Chancellor and then Prime Minister.”
April 12, 2025
Perhaps it should offer to permanently subsidise all additional energy costs for the business there, caused by our net zero policies?
That would be an interesting figure to keep track of!
April 12, 2025
Unless they address the high cost of UK energy, producing steel will just create enormous losses for the British taxpayer. Continuing their net-zero policies will destroy what little remains of our industrial manufacturing. Ed Miliband must go, along with all the other deluded zealots sitting in our parliament. Have they not caught up with the fact that this is all a scam, and we remain one of the few countries still trying to save the planet at an enormous expense to our citizens?
April 12, 2025
Spot on Christine
April 12, 2025
I agree with Sir John’s conclusion, despite it being extremely non-conservative. The era of globalisation has overreached itself and a correction for security reasons needs to be done. Ultimately, the proper solution for security of steel production is to abandon the suicidal Net Zero policies, reduce the cost of energy and mine our own coking coal. Historically, the Labour Party have also been identified with coal and steel. It will be interesting to see how they cope with this issue, conflicted as they are currently with Miliband still ruling the energy roost.
April 12, 2025
If new tariffs are meant to achieve fairness to the US on trade, perhaps the UK needs similar fairness measures on foreign ownership of UK buildings, land and other resources.
Does anyone know how much China owns of ours, and how much we own of theirs?
Much is concealed in overseas parent organisations. Perhaps Parliament should debate proportionality as well as immediate matters like British Steel.
April 12, 2025
Wow a proper Tory suggesting nationalisation, if ever there was a final nail in that Party’s coffin and even worse wanting purchasers to pay a higher price to subsidise an industry that cannot compete and a financial burden around the countries neck because if the Chinese cannot make a profit no one can.
For umpteen years egregious energy costs driven up by the Tories and now supported by Milliblank have been a major factor and now our appalling political class want to saddle us with more costs caused by their actions.
I remember Blair’s government giving £400 million in a panic to the Rover group back in the day, and where did it end up, closed and in a few peoples pockets.
Political virtue signalling of the utterly worst type and Tories who support it should be ashamed.
Reply No, not pro nationalisation. I have described putting it into Administration and finding s company to take it on without the Chinese company debts and losses. Government needs to cut its take from high energy carbon taxes etc.
April 12, 2025
Reply to reply. Semantics and as if the government is suddenly going to ditch its green policy taking less carbon energy tax,I.m.o. Cloud cuckoo land.
April 12, 2025
Well, the government is going to get no tax from this closed Chinese business. If they cut the taxes they might get some steel.
April 12, 2025
It appears the chickens are coming home to roost. The country is falling apart. The global economy stands on a precipice because of hedge funds gambling at up to 20 x margin on future bond prices. These basis trades going sour are leading to margin calls but liquidity in the repo market has dried up. A multi trillion dollar Fed bail out looms – or a banking crisis that will make 2008 look like a mere blip.
This endless gambling by the super rich – the endless transfer of wealth to the 1% has been going on for decades – it really started gaining pace in 1979. Who have we had in government since then?
April 12, 2025
Incompetent financial regulators. We saw that also with the large number of bankruptcies in energy markets during the energy crisis. I wrote to the FCA to warn them over the impending problems, but they just shut their ears and refused to offer OFGEM or BEIS any advice.
I do agree that there is probably still a lot of painful unwinding of hedge fund positions to come that threaten various aspects of financial stability. Instability in US policy is a factor, but perhaps that is intentional. Perhaps Trump thinks he can break Soros.
April 12, 2025
Once the government takes over the steel facility at Scunthorpe, and puts someone in to run it, maybe – and this is just a mad thought – we shoul out a tariff on imported steel to protect our industry from imports from countries with cheaper energy, labour and iron ore costs.
Nah, nutty idea.
Here’s another one. Why not put mad Ed in charge of it? It would give the 4500 employees in his department something to do.
April 12, 2025
DESNZ finds plenty to do. There is a constant barrage of initiatives and policy changes from them that is quite hard to keep up with. Perhaps they aim to outdo Department for Transport who also seem to dream up new rules every 5 minutes.
April 12, 2025
The ability to make steel is an essential, sovereign capability for the UK. The need for the government to take back control of the remnants of a once large industry prompts a number of questions for any political party seeking to run the country. After all they need a policy platform and action plan if they win the next election. Bumbling along from crisis to crisis is not good enough. Among these questions I suggest the following for starters:
(1) What were the fundamental root causes of the failure of the industry at the business level?
(2) Are capital markets up to the job of financing businesses? If not, why not?
(3) What role was/is played by taxation and regulation?
(4) To what extent has technology changed, both of steel manufacturing processes and the impact of alternative technologies and materials that have replaced steel?
(5) What legislative and regulatory changes are required to apply the lessons of the steel debacle?
It seems to me these are among the questions the political class must ask themselves and answer convincingly. Can they? How many have a clue about where to begin? It might be a good idea to develop a cross party consensus about this?
It also prompts a wider question. What other sovereign capabilities need to be nurtured? Based on past actions by governments building warships and retaining UK, or not Chinese, ownership of compound semi conductor manufacture appear to be among them. No doubt there are others I cannot think of immediately.
April 12, 2025
Put running of the works out to tender ? Who in the private sector would have the slightest interest in running a permanently loss-making asset like that amongst the straight jacket of severe net zero restrictions and cheaper imported steel ?. If anyone was interested they could have bought the works from the Chinese already. And why should Network Rail not just buy the cheapest steel it can on the open market ? Why do you want them to pay over the odds ? What form would your “encouragement” take to persuade them to pay more than they need to ?
Reply There is a price, negative or positive, for everything. The government could reversec its net zero tax madness and make it a more profitable asset
April 12, 2025
Who in the UK private sector would have the money to buy it? All their wealth is taxed away.
April 12, 2025
We have got into this panic because of incomptence from the current useless government and the previous useless government. What a mess.
April 12, 2025
Wokingham Borough have an energy-buying scheme on offer to local people where the Council has negotiated a deal which is claimed should save me about £200pa. They claim that ALL the electricity would come from renewable sources. I asked what would be the position if there was little wind and low light levels as we had a few weeks back but received no reply. On looking at the small print it turns out that the claim is not true. Try reading for yourself, Sir John, and see if you can make sense of it. NZ is such a pit of lies and deception to please those who wish us ill and our present MP supports it!
April 12, 2025
I think you’ll find that if in some convoluted way they pay an amount for renewable electricity then they can claim it is all from renewable sources. Usual political doublespeak.
April 12, 2025
Ah – like anyone who did not have the full suite of Covid shots is counted as ‘unjabbed’ – especially if they die suddenly.
April 13, 2025
Exactly!
April 12, 2025
I suspect they are only promising to buy REGO certificates to match their annual sales, which just relate to renewable energy generated at some time over the year. These trade for £10-15/MWh, adding 1-1.5p/kWh to your bill. With oil and gas prices having fallen dramatically in the past fortnight I would hold your fire and wait until that is reflected in fixed price offers that are likely to be well below current cap levels. It will not be due to more turbines!
April 12, 2025
This crisis could and should have been anticipated. Starmer is reacting to events, not controlling them. It would be easy to simply blame Moronic Miliband for this but successive governments have led us to this place. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. It’s time to get real, focus on survival and discard the non-essential. They include Net Zero, the ECHR/Human Rights Act, a good chunk of the Benefits bill (cut back to time limited safety net), the Quangos and a large chunk of the Civil Service. I’m not holding my breath.
April 12, 2025
In his best Chamberlainlike voice the PM will announce today that unless we hear by 11am that the Chinese will pony up the required money and resources for the Scunthorpe steel plant then we will be at odds with China.
Perhaps he will also reconsider the decision on the proposed coking coal mine in Cumbria or is he desperately keen to completely destroy our balance of payments and buy everything from abroad.
April 12, 2025
The BBC wringing it’s hands over the potential ending of British made steel, managed to get through their report without once mentioning the true cause of the Scunthorpe blast furnace closure. (and the previous Port Talbot closure)
Mad Ed Millibands net zero policies, which have led to the dearest energy in the world.
Of course if this sunshine goes on much longer. BBC will have a ‘climate change’ meltdown and tell us again how we need net zero. They’re either in the pocket of Labour or simply incompetent. Maybe both.
April 12, 2025
The most likely outcome is that the taxpayer will yet again be picking up the tab. Seems little point in taking over the entire plant without sorting out the energy in put – and that means mining our own coke and ensuring that costs are commensurate with those world wide – competitive. There will also be a need to ensure that the new organisation is run professionally and not by Government/Civil Service. One can dream
April 12, 2025
We’re trying to solve problems which were self induced by the governments of both tory and labour under the guise of net-zero and putting all our egg’s the chinese basket
April 12, 2025
The government has no heart in retaining a steel industry, and China would rather the Scunthorpe mill turn to rust rather than become a thriving producer.
Yes of course we should find some way to maintain steel production, but this vital capability should never have been sold abroad in the first place!
The next thing we will see, with Scunthorpe likely to close is that there will be a shortage of steel to met the basic needs of the railways – that will have knock on effects including a much more expensive rail system.
Maintaining railways and building our own defence equipment should be seen as vital, but this couldn’t care less attitude by HMG who would rather make theatre than do something positive confirms It’s all being done to force a devastating decline on all sectors of the UK economy.
April 12, 2025
We also need to review our steel import tariffs …..for two decades we’ve been flooded by cheap dirty steel from china and india ….we need a competitive level playing field
April 12, 2025
I like the idea of the government taking on British Steel’s Scunthorpe blast furnaces and the nearby rolling mill for £1. The plant’s Chinese owners have proved incapable of running them at a profit – and as with all businesses that fail, they and their lenders have to take the hit.
Without the debts there is a good chance that, with something like a government-financed management buy-out, the plant can be returned to profitability. Maybe there could be a tie-up with the nationalised Sheffield Forgemasters?
Thames Water has similar problems. Loaded with £billions in debt by it’s original owners (the Australian Macquarie Bank) and subsequent private equity firms, it is inevitable that this company too will have to be re-nationalised. Hopefully also for another £1. When this happens, the current owners should receive no compensation at all and their lenders will find their debts are worthless.
The government can then use the payments from bill-payers to run the business, investing in new sewage treatment plant, upgraded sewage pipes and a much needed new reservoir. Without it’s humungous debt and the need to pay interest and dividends/bonuses for failure, Thames Water should also return to profitability.
April 12, 2025
Such a shame that when Water was privatised, the government at the time didn’t create a regulator with powers to stop that happening.
WHAT?? They did create such a regulator. Well, the seem to have failed and all involved should be sacked for incompetence with no redundancy or pension payments.
This endless incompetence has to stop.
April 12, 2025
Regulators rarely seem up to the job they are given through lack of technical and financial knowledge or business acumen and all too often take the side of the industry rather than their customers or end users.
April 13, 2025
Not really: The previous chairman of OfWat (before the present one who got there in July 2022) had been working as manager for Yorkshire Water then as CEO of Anglian Water Group for six years in his previous life. So he obviously knew the nooks and crannies of the water business. Whether he was good as chairman of OfWat, at corraling the CEOs of the various water companies and making OfWat an efficient regulator might be another question.
April 12, 2025
Yes this endless incompetence does have to stop.
April 12, 2025
Sir John
Your suggestion is the right way, but wont happen.
We need proper Steel manufactured in the UK to service our industry and defence needs. Government policy of ‘cheap as chips’ recycled steel only created by the last Government and retained by this one wont cut it – we in the UK couldn’t compete in that market even without our absorbent energy prices.
Jingye as with Tata are not interested in the welfare of the UK, they bot have demonstrated their priority is to supply the UK with steel made in their home markets – as they make more profit that way.
We this Century while pontificating about ‘open’ markets have aided and abetted at the cost to the taxpayer the removal and deindustrialisation of the UK. All at the expense of the UK’s potential, security and long term safety.
April 12, 2025
If these foreign companies are not concerned about the impact and welfare of the British population, why do we think foreign individuals, even if elected to the Parliament, are concerned?
April 12, 2025
Presumably the steel factory at Scunthorpe is losing £250 million a year because those who need to buy steel are already importing it, as is common practice with other supplies such as most medicines. That is free trade. It is rather inconsistent to complain about Trump’s American protectionism and yet support this expensive piece of steel protectionism.
As we have already allowed many other steel production facilities in the U.K. to close this factory would anyhow have very limited steel production facility and we would still end up having to import most of our steel, Though there is an argument for maintaining some steel production capacity in the U.K., I think on balance it is better and far less expensive to just let it go than put it into the massively inefficient and massively expensive hands of government.
April 12, 2025
The UK certainly needs to keep a steel industry especially in this climate. We are far too dependent on others. Selling it to the Chinese?? Chickens now coming home to roost. The last 12 years of the Conservative Government has been chaotic to say the least…and I am a Conservative by birth! I feel so let down by my Party of choice.
April 12, 2025
Next to be discussed, Grangemouth oil refinery a 50-50% PetroChina-Ineos venture (bbc.com 19/03/2025 ‘Grangemouth: A new dawn for the home of the UK’s oldest oil refinery’.)
April 12, 2025
”Residents’ terror over huge fire at battery plant” 9th April 2025 – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5ypp5q79l3o
This is the second huge battery plant fire, in a couple of years, I’ve highlighted this because our government(s) are plowing all our money and effort into renewables and away from tradional steel & coal & gas energy generation
There’s NO energy security with renewables and cheap dirty imported steel
April 12, 2025
So your argument is that these batteries are definitely producing heat? Milliband will be delighted.
April 12, 2025
Apparently whenever I offer a comment including the word “degrowth” it gets vaporised.
April 12, 2025
Or is it the link to the conference on degrowth that is the problem?
April 12, 2025
Betcha you don’t hear anything about ‘net-zero’ from the tories & labour in todays commons debate
Reply The Conservatives have been constantly stressing the huge damage high energy prices and taxes are doing
April 12, 2025
Reply to reply. Judge them by what they do not by what they say.
April 12, 2025
Dame Hariett Baldwin said
Ultimately, nothing will change for UK steel until the Government understand the damage that unrealistic and impossible “net zero by 2050” targets have done to British business and industry.
April 12, 2025
It has to be understood that there are people who wish to put the clock back as far as they can. Their outer mask is “Decarbonisation”, but beneath that is “Deindustrialisation”, and beneath that again is ” Degrowth”. While Rachel Reeves is talking about the need for increased economic growth others are pursuing the opposite tack, and it seems that somehow they have taken control. Anybody who fancies a trip to Norway this summer might be interested in the 11th International Degrowth Conference, which will also be the 18th Conference of the International Society for Ecological Economics.
April 12, 2025
It’s great to see the Lords discussing on TV – gives us a chance to see where some of yesteryear’s scoundrals are skulking
April 13, 2025
Alas one of the rather few sensible ones Lord Matt Ridley is no longer serving.
April 12, 2025
Trump u-turns on iPhones made in China (most of iPhones made in China) because obviously is would be a disaster for American consumers. Slowly the penny is beginning to drop. I mean the iPhone thing is not rocket science. Nor Boeing that imports most of its parts from abroad. And so on, and on, and on.
Trump is beginning to learn that tariffs isn’t Christmas Monopoly. It’s a lot more complicated.
April 12, 2025
180 criminals arrived in the UK yesterday; from the safe country of France …