UK Steel Industry

Margaret Ferrier Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2015 Commons Chamber

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (SNP)]

I would like to put on record the fact that it I am delighted to be able to participate in the debate today, having been one of the lead Members to make representations to the Backbench Business Committee, along with the hon. Member for Redcar (Anna Turley). I would like to thank all those who supported the application, and all those who are attending and contributing today. I, too, am glad to see that we have a Minister here today who is listening to us on this issue.

I know all too well the challenges facing the steel industry. Tata Steel’s Clydebridge plant lies in my constituency, and its sister plant, Dalzell, is in the neighbouring constituency of Motherwell and Wishaw. Those two plants are part of the Tata Steel long products business.

As many Members will be aware, the history of the steelworkers industry in Scotland, in particular in north and south Lanarkshire, is extensive. The Clydebridge steelworks was first opened in 1887, and throughout the years it has had the status of being one of the giants of industrial Scotland. The steel plates it made were used in many of the most famous ships ever built, such as the Lusitania, Mauretania, Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and the QE2.

From 1786 to 1978, the Clyde ironworks lay adjacent to Clydebridge and supplemented the work of the steelworks. In the Clyde ironworks, the hot-blast process was invented in 1828 by James Beaumont Neilson. This one invention led to a rapid increase in iron manufacture, and the growth of industries made Scotland a world leader in manufacturing.

Established under the Iron and Steel Act 1967, nationalisation tried to rationalise steel production and made the biggest changes to the British steel industry ever seen. Some 90% of UK steelmaking came together under the one single business, the British Steel Corporation.

Clyde ironworks was to be enlarged, and this led to the establishment of the Ravenscraig steelworks in 1954. It was based in Motherwell and had the title of being the steel capital of Scotland, and the skyline was dominated by the gas holders and cooling towers of the plant. Ravenscraig became the heart of the nationalised industry’s Scottish operations and produced its own iron in blast furnaces fuelled by Scottish coal. Iron ore was imported via a purpose-built pier terminal at Hunterston, and lime flux came from its own works in Westmorland. Ravenscraig became western Europe’s largest producer of hot-strip steel and produced slab steel for the Dalzell works, which is still there today.

On the watch of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government, British Steel was privatised in 1988, a move that has left a legacy of decimation. With the privatisation came high manufacturing costs, the free market, overseas competition and a downturn in shipbuilding. This led to the closure of Ravenscraig in 1992, ending the large-scale steel making industry in Scotland. That was widely regarded as one of the biggest social and economic disasters to have ever occurred throughout the UK, and the steel industry has never been able to recover from this hammer blow.

The closure resulted in the loss of 770 jobs and another 10,000 jobs directly and indirectly linked. Ravenscraig at one point was regarded as the largest brownfield site in Europe. Fortunately, however, the Dalzell and Clydebridge plants have remained in operation under the ownership of Tata Steel Europe.

The UK steel sector currently employs about 20,000 people directly, which is just a tenth of the number who worked in it during the 1970s. Tata currently employs around 17,000 of them, down from 25,000 in 2008.

When Tata Steel suffers, the UK steel industry suffers. Tata Steel posted a pre-tax loss of £768 million in the year to the end of March, double that of the previous year. Its revenues fell, down 7.3% to £4.2 billion, and production was down to 8.2 million tonnes, due to “operational issues” at plants. Tata Steel’s liquid steel has this year declined by 2.5%.

Tata’s European branch took a heavy hit when its Indian branch lost £314 million from restructuring and impairments. Tata Steel has been slashing costs since 2007, and 1,000 staff and agency jobs have been lost since last year alone. It has been stated that these losses have been the result of high taxes and energy costs, the strong pound and cheap Chinese imports, along with other external factors.

The Chinese Government have devalued their domestic currency several times throughout the year and this move has improved the competitiveness of Chinese exports. About half of the 1.6 billion tonnes of steel made worldwide each year comes from China, which is now exporting around 100 million tonnes a year as its economy slows.

[Stephen Doughty (Cardiff South and Penarth) (Lab/Co-op)]

I pay tribute to the hon. Lady for securing this debate, along with other Members, and she is making a powerful case for her constituents. It is important, however, that we look at the role Governments play in procurement. She talks about Chinese exports and Chinese steel, but did not the Scottish Government choose Chinese steel to build the new Forth road bridge? Has she made any representations to her own colleagues in Holyrood about that crucial issue, because this is an issue for all of us in Governments across these islands?

[Margaret Ferrier]

The hon. Gentleman is incorrect. There was a bid process, and that was the result. [Interruption.] Yes, the Chinese won that process.

[Marion Fellows (Motherwell and Wishaw) (SNP)]

May I clear up this point? Yes, the Chinese won that steel contract, but Tata Steel did not bid; that is a fact.

[Margaret Ferrier]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention.

Furthermore, the UK has trading barriers with the USA. Six steel producers in the US filed petitions for the imposition of anti-dumping measures on hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil imports from countries including the UK and the Netherlands.

Exports are an increasingly important part of the UK steel industry’s strategy, given the current weak European demand. Manufacturing in Scotland has shifted focus in recent years with heavy industries such as shipbuilding and iron and steel declining in importance and in their contribution to the economy. It is generally argued that this has been in response to increasing globalisation and competition from low-cost producers across the world, as well as the privatisation of the manufacturing industries.

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Scottish Government have, with the powers they have, offered a whole host and range of practical advice and support to steel companies through Business Gateway, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Development International?

[Margaret Ferrier]

I agree; they are doing what they can.

Currently there are 330 people employed between Clydebridge and the Dalzell operation in Motherwell, which is far less than the numbers at the height of the Ravenscraig site. In May of this year Tata announced that it would have to reassess its long products mills to strengthen the competitiveness of its UK operations as a whole. The hot-strip mill in Port Talbot has benefited from this, as quality and capacity upgrades have been carried out. The mill at Newport will also come out of production owing to financial constraints.

The Tata Group, which runs these sites, was recently subject to a takeover bid by an American industrial consortium, the Klesch Group. However, after due diligence no offer was made. Both Tata and Klesch have said that the business has been struggling owing to significant pressure globally. The union official for Community has conceded that the plate market is really slow and that the union has known that there will be losses to come at the Scottish site, and notes that the situation remains very concerning. They had hoped the market would pick up; however, this has evidently not been the case.

It has been the unions who have been fighting the case for these workers and trying to ensure that there are no redundancies. However, the UK Government must do more. The unions have already met the Scottish Government and are to meet them again regarding any assistance that they can offer. We need to ensure that the plants in Scotland remain open and remain sustainable, adding jobs to our communities.

All job losses are devastating news for the steel industries. Many communities rely on them for employment. Every job lost, and every single redundancy, tells its own personal story. We must do whatever we can to protect those jobs.

The UK Government’s flippant “leave it to the market” attitude will destroy this industry. Action needs to be taken, and it needs to be taken now. That accords with the comment of the aforementioned Klesch, who walked away from buying Tata, that its 6,000 workers were

“being led to the slaughterhouse”

by the Government’s failure to address high energy costs or stem a growing tide of cheap Chinese imports. He insisted that the lack of Government subsidies and their lack of industrial policy are hampering the UK’s industry.

This was echoed by Sue Lewis of Community, who has said that the UK Government should have done far more to support the steel industry to meet rising energy prices, while the Welsh First Minister said the UK Government should do more to help. The UK Government have given £35 million to steel firms to offset their costs, but that simply is not enough. Mr Klesch said that the UK Government needed to address these issues urgently, in tandem with other European countries, if they wanted to retain a steel industry. He said:

“Whoever gets the cheapest input costs wins the roses. You have Middle Eastern countries giving free gas to aluminium smelters and the Chinese government supporting their steel industry. We don’t have a level playing field.”

I agree with that assessment and believe we should be doing more.

It is unfortunate that, as the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise has said:

“Neither the Office for National Statistics nor other governmental statistical sources make such forecasts for steel. The Government forecasts can influence markets and therefore must be able to be robust.”

However, there is an unwillingness to share information and the Government should be able to calculate robust figures. If they do that, we need to be able to work towards this target or even to try to outdo any expectations. Today, I will submit a series of written questions to the relevant Departments to ensure that Ministers will converse with Tata in Scotland and with the local communities.

The hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop) stated yesterday that he wanted to see the Prime Minister do more in Redcar. I welcome that, but I also want the Government to do more throughout the UK. The time for action is now, and I will happily work across the Chamber to deliver a galvanised response to the steel industry’s pleas for help.