Protecting Britain’s Steel Industry

Christina Rees Excerpts

Monday 21st June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Christina Rees (Neath) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

I support the motion to bring forward emergency legislation to give Ministers powers to reject the TRA’s recommendations and temporarily extend all 19 steel safeguards so that they do not expire at the end of June, and allow time to find a long-term solution to protect the British steel industry.

The steel industry is vital to our economy and the idea that it does not have a future is unthinkable. Our steelworkers are as robust as the steel they produce. They have bounced back from every adversity they have encountered, but the situation is about to get much worse as the industry faces a potentially catastrophic existential threat. Under current legislation, the Secretary of State can accept the TRA recommendations and we lose nine safeguards, or reject them and we lose all 19. That is so wrong. Dropping nine safeguards will open up our market to thousands of tonnes of cheap steel imports with no defences to stop it. That will have dire consequences for every steelworks because of the interconnectedness of the industry.

Steel is at the centre of everything we build. Railways, schools and hospitals all need high-quality British steel, as do the aerospace, agriculture, automotive, defence and construction supply chains, too. The British steel industry produces 7 million tonnes of crude steel every year, 70% of the UK’s annual requirement of which 96% is recycled again and again, and it makes a £2.1 billion direct contribution to UK GDP. Some 33,700 people are directly employed, with an average annual salary of £34,299, and 42,000 people work in the supply chain. Steel is vital for building green technologies of the future, such as wind turbines, and steel is helping the UK to achieve net zero by going through its own decarbonisation process.

The global oversupply of steel, plus unfair trading practices from China, have added to problems facing UK steel producers. The UK Government have not supported the industry during the pandemic, despite demand for steel dropping by 16% in 2020: no emergency support, no support in the last Budget, not mentioned in the plan for growth, not procuring British steel, and holding back funds from the clean steel fund until 2023. It is astounding that the UK Government would provide open access to our steel market. The UK Government need to stop pretending that there is nothing they can do, and support our motion to legislate to keep all 19 safeguards and stand up for steel.