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Britains Steel Industry

When it was announced that TaTa ( Indian ) Steel, was going to close the Steel works at Port Talbot and possibly sell off ALL its Steel interests in the UK; putting ( potentially ) 15000 people out of work..........I HAD A VISION !!

 

Stop the overseas aid budget to INDIA and plough the money into the Steel Industry, I'd make them pay.......one way or another.

 

China's meteoric rise, to compete for top spot as the World's leading economy, was accompanied by an equally meteoric building programme.  Among other things, this included steel plants; being built at the rate of one every couple of months or so.  This made China self sufficient in Steel and CHEAP Steel ( due to extremely low production costs, compared to other Countries ) with Steel workers earning £50 to £100 per week.  Hardly a level playing field now is it !! , however; had that steel remained in China, it would only have excluded that one market as an outlet for other Steel producers........annoying as it would have been, others would have survived.  BUT, as China's economy has slowed dramatically ( including its building programmes ) it finds itself well overstocked with its own cheap steel........which it has now dumped onto the Worlds markets.

As we all know that the UK is NEVER going to be able to compete, with certain other Countries, when it comes to production costs; our main strengths lie in industries that are more advanced than other countries.......and therefore gives us the edge.  One has to ask, however, that if our trade hinges so strongly on remaining in the EU.........How is all this cheap CHINESE Steel finding its way in.  When did China join the EU ?? did I blink and miss something..........Add to that the fact that we didn't need the EU to negotiate THAT trade deal, did we, I'm sure we could have done that ALL BY OURSELVES.Smiley Indifferent

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Britains Steel Industry

Some brilliant observations there Evo! My O/H worked in the Steel industry all his working life. Watching the news this morning, he said himself that if the EU didn't allow all this cheap steel in, then UK steel would be able to continue production. British Steel is the best in the world. He also said that the steel works at Llanwern, where he worked will probably be closed, as the land is desperately needed for housing. It used to be the case that no house building was allowed on ex industrial land because of contamination, but these days all that caution has gone to the wind. Hundreds of houses are being built on the site of the old Panteg Steelworks just down the road from me. People who live in those houses can't grow any food in their gardens!

the Government will make a load of mealy mouthed pronouncements about wanting to save Steel in this country, but nothing will be done because it is EU policy to run it down here. That has been the intention from the beginning.

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Britains Steel Industry

I'm trying to get my head around the simple economics of the claims surrounding Port Talbot.

 

The claim is that the plant is losing £1miliion per day - There are 4,000 workers at the plant - let's be generous and say they earn an average of £35k each - that is a cost of £385,000 per day.

 

So over and above the cost of the workers the plant is losing more than £600,000 a day - on what, how?

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Britains Steel Industry

As regards the EU and trade deals is it really the job of the EU, or the UK government for that matter to negotiate trade deals that make raw materials more expensive!

 

I would have thought it was the opposite, get the best possible price for raw materials that will allow industries producing goods from these materials to compete on the world open market.  If you want to protect home base industries such as steel production then surely the answer to that has to be to ensure that government contracts use locally produced materials, (i.e. an indirect government subsidy).

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Britains Steel Industry

Well you everybody needs to be asking themselves several questions.  How come the GERMAN Steel industry isn't in the same predicament, whose steel do you think THEY use to build their Cars ( and there's enough of them ).  How many times have you seen adverts, from many component manufacturers, saying " Made from good quality steel, NOT cheap Chinese stuff "........I've seen that many times, especially regarding automotive parts & components.  So what Steel are we using to build the new fleet of Trident Subs, what Steel are we using to build our New Aircraft Carrier ??? Funny how the EU, China ( the rich ones of course ), Russia ( the rich ones of course ), India ( the rich ones of course ) and America ( the rich ones of course ) ALL Love the high end luxury goods made in the UK......Land Rover, Jaguar, Bently, Rolls Royce, etc. etc. whose Steel do they think they're made out of ???........and this is a prime example of why we need to leave the EU. The contracts negotiated to supply raw materials, are done ,as a whole, by the EU ( at least that's what the stay in bunch have been telling us, that's why we get the best deals they say ).  So when you've got 28 countries and you're negotiating to buy Steel, for all of them, to you take Hungary, Greece, Poland, into account, where wages are a fraction of what they are here, so they can't afford to spend so much on Cars ( and all the other things made of steel ).  Or do you take the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, into account; where a lot of people can afford Mercedes, Audi, VW, Jaguar, etc. etc................Now you get it " ONE SIZE DOESN'T FIT ALL........and NEVER WILL "...........the very basis on which the EU functions.

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Britains Steel Industry


@evoman3957 wrote:

When it was announced that TaTa ( Indian ) Steel, was going to close the Steel works at Port Talbot and possibly sell off ALL its Steel interests in the UK; putting ( potentially ) 15000 people out of work..........I HAD A VISION !!

 

Stop the overseas aid budget to INDIA and plough the money into the Steel Industry, I'd make them pay.......one way or another.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

In 2012 the government announced that after 2015,  it was withdrawing all UK aid to India.

Was there was there a last minute U-turn on that policy?

 

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Britains Steel Industry


@evoman3957 wrote:

When it was announced that TaTa ( Indian ) Steel, was going to close the Steel works at Port Talbot and possibly sell off ALL its Steel interests in the UK; putting ( potentially ) 15000 people out of work..........I HAD A VISION !!

 

Stop the overseas aid budget to INDIA and plough the money into the Steel Industry, I'd make them pay.......one way or another.

 

China's meteoric rise, to compete for top spot as the World's leading economy, was accompanied by an equally meteoric building programme.  Among other things, this included steel plants; being built at the rate of one every couple of months or so.  This made China self sufficient in Steel and CHEAP Steel ( due to extremely low production costs, compared to other Countries ) with Steel workers earning £50 to £100 per week.  Hardly a level playing field now is it !! , however; had that steel remained in China, it would only have excluded that one market as an outlet for other Steel producers........annoying as it would have been, others would have survived.  BUT, as China's economy has slowed dramatically ( including its building programmes ) it finds itself well overstocked with its own cheap steel........which it has now dumped onto the Worlds markets.

As we all know that the UK is NEVER going to be able to compete, with certain other Countries, when it comes to production costs; our main strengths lie in industries that are more advanced than other countries.......and therefore gives us the edge.  One has to ask, however, that if our trade hinges so strongly on remaining in the EU.........How is all this cheap CHINESE Steel finding its way in.  When did China join the EU ?? did I blink and miss something..........Add to that the fact that we didn't need the EU to negotiate THAT trade deal, did we, I'm sure we could have done that ALL BY OURSELVES.Smiley Indifferent


"One has to ask, however, that if our trade hinges so strongly on remaining in the EU.........How is all this cheap CHINESE Steel finding its way in."

 

The UK Government has been accused of betraying steel workers after it emerged the UK opposes attempts to make Chinese steel more expensive in the UK.

MPs were told the European Commission wanted to increase the tariffs on Chinese imports to help the struggling steel industry.

But they were told the UK government opposed increasing the tariffs to the same rate as the United States.

 

As as result the EU has only increased the import duty to between 9.2% and 13% on Chinese goods.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid admitted he would not support the European Commission taking tougher action - even though it would have helped UK steel firms."

 

This government doesn't care about jobs unless its in support of the obcene spending on trident - think of the jobs!!





We are many,They are few
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Britains Steel Industry

The more you dig into the background the more obvious it becomes that it is not the EU that are the 'problem' but our own UK government.

 

Unlike other EU countries we haven't supported our steel industry - neither financially nor in insisting on the use of British steel for all government contracts - we insist that a significant percentage of energy purchases by the industry come from 'green' sources, we insist on low carbon emmissions and we make them pay a surcharge to subsidise the building of new power stations - the result, they pay more than twice as much for their energy than do German steel producers.

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Britains Steel Industry


@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

As regards the EU and trade deals is it really the job of the EU, or the UK government for that matter to negotiate trade deals that make raw materials more expensive!

 

I would have thought it was the opposite, get the best possible price for raw materials that will allow industries producing goods from these materials to compete on the world open market.  If you want to protect home base industries such as steel production then surely the answer to that has to be to ensure that government contracts use locally produced materials, (i.e. an indirect government subsidy).


EU imposes maximum 42.1% anti-dumping tariff on Chinese solar glass exporters

surely the answer to that has to be to ensure that government contracts use locally produced materials, that's against eu rules
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Britains Steel Industry

The provisional duties vary between 17.1% and 42.1% depending on each Chinese company's cooperation with the investigation. The tariffs are due to take effect tomorrow, Nov. 28.

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Britains Steel Industry


@0125arwen wrote:

@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

As regards the EU and trade deals is it really the job of the EU, or the UK government for that matter to negotiate trade deals that make raw materials more expensive!

 

I would have thought it was the opposite, get the best possible price for raw materials that will allow industries producing goods from these materials to compete on the world open market.  If you want to protect home base industries such as steel production then surely the answer to that has to be to ensure that government contracts use locally produced materials, (i.e. an indirect government subsidy).


EU imposes maximum 42.1% anti-dumping tariff on Chinese solar glass exporters

surely the answer to that has to be to ensure that government contracts use locally produced materials, that's against eu rules

It is against EU rules only in regards to products from other EU countries

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Britains Steel Industry


@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

@0125arwen wrote:

@upthecreekyetagain wrote:

As regards the EU and trade deals is it really the job of the EU, or the UK government for that matter to negotiate trade deals that make raw materials more expensive!

 

I would have thought it was the opposite, get the best possible price for raw materials that will allow industries producing goods from these materials to compete on the world open market.  If you want to protect home base industries such as steel production then surely the answer to that has to be to ensure that government contracts use locally produced materials, (i.e. an indirect government subsidy).


EU imposes maximum 42.1% anti-dumping tariff on Chinese solar glass exporters

surely the answer to that has to be to ensure that government contracts use locally produced materials, that's against eu rules

It is against EU rules only in regards to products from other EU countries


So in other words, the answer to, surely the answer to that has to be to ensure that government contracts use locally produced materials, they can't eu rules do not allow it, as i said

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Britains Steel Industry

Well this would imply that they're still getting it, through agencies........via. the back door.

 

article-3344693/Britain-s-ballooning-foreign-aid-bill-12billion-budget-40-times-bigger-1970s-giving-cash-India.html

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Britains Steel Industry

EU rules mean the Government can not discriminate against non-UK companies. The same would apply for British firms such as the Royal Mint when pitching for work overseas.
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Britains Steel Industry

 

Chancellor announced that foreign relief will total £16.3billion by 2020

That support bill will eclipse the Home Office and MoJ budgets combined

 


 
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Britains Steel Industry

............and it's the EU as a whole that imposes the tariffs:

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/02/uk-exposed-to-steel-deluge-as-us-clamps-down-on-chine...

 

 

 

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Britains Steel Industry

Taken from the above:

 

 

Union boss Roy Rickhuss said the “enormous” US tariffs reflect the true cost of unfairly traded steel imports in contrast with the “measly” 16pc tariff imposed by Brussels in a bid to level the playing field for European producers.

“This enormous difference demonstrates that the global market is not free or fair,” Mr Rickhuss said.

Industry group UK Steel branded European efforts to date "inadequate" to tackle the growing pressure on steel mills. 

 

 

 

The answer:

 

Stay in Europe like some caged Bird...........or leave........and FLY !!

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Britains Steel Industry

But isn't it our government that is preventing the EU from imposing higher tariffs?

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@0125arwen wrote:
EU rules mean the Government can not discriminate against non-UK companies. The same would apply for British firms such as the Royal Mint when pitching for work overseas.

Tell that to the Germans, the Italians and the Swedes!

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